


The Butterfly Effect

by snowcloud8



Series: The Girl and the Keyblade [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Real World, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst and Feels, Dimension Travel, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Drama, Family Feels, Just Friends, OTP Feels, One True Pairing, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Original Character(s), Psychological Trauma, Romance, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 67,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9141865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowcloud8/pseuds/snowcloud8
Summary: When everything's connected, the actions of one can make the greatest change. When Sora decides to return home with Kairi, a new chain of events unfolds that alters the destinies of many, including a gamer from the real world. While seeking answers to the sudden change, dreams become nightmares when she becomes the hero, a role she may be unfit for. AU Canon Divergence after the first Kingdom Hearts game.





	1. The Real World and the Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We are introduced to our heroine, who is a bit introverted and prefers to sleep in rather than have weird dreams that would put "Inception" to shame. Meanwhile, Riku is training under King Mickey and receives a new mission while the Heartless are becoming a problem.

_**"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?** _   
_**Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality** _   
_**Open your eyes** _   
_**Look up to the skies and see..."** _

_She's falling... falling in space, to which there is no bottom. In her dreams, she is always falling and so far, there is no sign of stopping._

_The girl opens her eyes to see she is floating in a watery abyss of blurry images and sounds. Her clothes melt away into sea-foam, the colors blurring and obscure her body like watercolors as they form into something new._ _Time speeds up and she is surprised to find herself encased in a glass box made up of mirrors. She pushes against the reflective prison from all sides, but it does not budge. While she tries and think of another way of escape, she decides to pose and model her new outfit. She can't see the fine details of it, but it is full of color, unlike the grey T-shirt and black shorts she was sporting before._ _  
_

_While the rest of her outfit has changed, she is still wearing her black lavaliere choker necklace. It is one of her most prized possessions. She looks almost like a completely different person. In fact, the more she stares, the more she notices her face doesn't look quite right. Her eyes are not their usual brown color and her chestnut ringlets of hair are long and straight. Placing her hand on the mirror is when she realizes that her hand has touched another hand instead of a flat surface, that she is not looking into a mirror. She is looking at her sister._

_As she steps closer to the image, her sister's copy of her outfit suddenly ripples away into her usual navy skinny jeans, grey cardigan sweater, and red converse sneakers._ _Flecks of unknown colors bristle the edges of her hazel irises as her sister smiles kindly at her before she glances at someone behind her._

_Seeing no one in the reflection, tbe girl turns around and sees a flash of silver before the sound of breaking glass is heard behind her. The "mirror" she'd had her hand on begins cracking into chaotic-patterned shards, like thin ice on the verge of breaking, distorting her sister's reflection, making her smile appear malicious and evil before the image turns dark and shatters. Glass erupts everywhere as she screams and cowers over to cover her ears and shield her face, but nothing audibly comes out of her mouth._

_The shards cut and splinter through the blackness like shimmering, shooting stars, creating blank, partial tears in the surround space, revealing strange images she has never seen before in the blank crevices. A silhouette of a boy grabbing a young girl's hand..._ her _hand... yelling incoherent words... falling into water... drowning... Before she can look closer, an intense sunset nearly blinds her._

_Then everything seems to be moving so fast and feels so vacuumed packed, she feels like she is being sucked down and pulled into the abyss, like a riptide dragging its victim out to the sea to be swallowed. She feels something or someone trying to delay the pull and hears a muffled voice yelling, calling out to her, but the feeling eventually goes away and she is suddenly surrounded by darkness._

_She is now at the bottom of the pit. The pressure of the abyss is almost suffocating as she stumbles around to find her way out until she comes across a silver doorway. It is locked with a large silver chain wrapped around the door handles, but somehow she feels like she can break the lock. She raises her arm, feeling something form in her hand and brings it down towards the door like a sledgehammer before she is enveloped in a white blur and hears a loud, growing ring in her ear..._

The girl suddenly jolted awake, drunkenly fumbling around and grasping at the sheets as she sat up in bed, having broken out into a cold sweat during the middle of the night. A couple seconds go by before she was coherent enough for her eyes to focus on and recognize the Kingdom Hearts posters and glow-in-the-dark star stickers plastered on her bedroom walls and ceiling instead of mirrors or the ocean-floor. She collapsed on her back with a relaxed sigh of relief and stretched back on her pillows. _It was only a dream..._

After taking a few deep breathes, she calmed herself down and settled comfortably back into her blankets. Not even five minutes go by before she hears what can be described as the beckoning dogs of war.

**BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!**

With an irritated growl, the girl smacked the top of her alarm clock and hit snooze as she silently cursed her ugly habit of waking up before her alarm, not ready to face the day quite yet. She kept on trying to fall back asleep in short intervals, attempting to make up for the loss of sleep. However, her mind was busy with thoughts of her jarring dream, replaying the events, over and over, like it was a song stuck on repeat.

This routine went on for about twenty more minutes as she continually hit the snooze button before the lights overhead abruptly turn on and blind her, making her immediately retreat under the dark safety of warm covers.

"Lila, get up," sharply ordered a female voice. Lila offered a long groan in rebuttal, clutching her space fleece blanket to shield her from the world. Briefly, she sneaked a peak to glance at her little sister, who was dressed in their usual school uniform a white long sleeved blouse, pleated grey skirt, and crimson-colored tie, before she threw a freshly laundered set of it flying towards her face. After dramatically leaving as quickly she had appeared, Lila groaned and pushed the clothes off her face, mumbling a dry, "morning to you too, Kurami," before gradually dressing herself and dragging herself to the bathroom.

While her thoughts remained muddled from her dream, she fell into the monotony of her morning routine as she applied her usual concoction of hair mousse, leave-in conditioner, and patience to her scalp, teasing strands of her curled hair with her special perm comb. Tugging harshly at a bunch of knots that never seemed to go away. She couldn't help but glare at her in envy of how effortless she brushed her long, luxurious locks, which she noticed as she paused mid-brush.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" she asked in confusion, gesturing to her practically flawless complexion. Lila couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"No. It's nothing..." Lila murmured, feeling stupid for staring off into space again.

"What's with you? You usually don't start day-dreaming until _after_ we've started class."

"I told you, it's nothing." She brushed her off, walking past her with a wet washcloth in hand.

"You have that dream again?" she asked, her inquiry sounding more like a statement than a question.

"...Yeah," Lila admitted sheepishly, burying her face in her washcloth to wash the grime and shame off her face. She'd been having dreams like this on and off for the past couple of days. Normally having the same kind of dream over and over was a sign that your mind was trying to figure out a real world problem in your sleep, but they were so damn near cryptic that Lila didn't know what any of it even meant or what to fix, and lately they had become way more intense. Maybe she needed to look into seeing a sleep doctor or look into getting a prescription for sleeping medication.

"Well, you wouldn't be having all these crazy dreams if you didn't keep playing your video games into all hours of the night. I mean, Mom buys you one _Kingdom Hearts_ game, and suddenly, it's all you will ever play..." Lila began to feel herself disassociate from the conversation, retreating into her own little world. Figures the moment she decided to show a moment of weakness, her sister would repay her by turning it into an argument about everything she was doing wrong with her life by going into "mom mode."

"...-are you even listening?" Lila heard her say as she tuned back into Kurami's constant ramblings on the game.

"Meh," Lila shrugged as she finished brushing her teeth. Kurami sighed at her vague reaction, but she didn't pursue the matter any further, knowing how old and far back this conversation spanned back. Taking advantage of the silence, Lila began pulling her hair into two pigtails and tied them with green and red ribbons in each tail. The private school they attended was fairly strict on uniforms, but they would occasionally let you get away with small personalizations as long as you didn't vandalize the school uniform itself or wear something inappropriate. Lila's goal wasn't so much as that as she wanted to be a little more colorful, a little more... unique. Anything to stand out and remind people she was her own person and not to be confused for Kurami. To complete her ensemble, she tied a black ribbon lavaliere choker around her neck as the finishing touch and centered the round, silver charm that hung off of it in-between her collarbones before shuffling down the stairs. There to greet her growling tummy in the kitchen was her mother, who was currently hunched over the counter and dead to the world.

"G'morning, Mom," Lila greeted noncommittally, grabbing some orange juice, bread, and butter out of the fridge as her mother mumbled her usual 'hmmm'. Yukino Hoshiyama was not much of a morning person, only aware of the coffee machine as she began brewing her daily batch of hazelnut coffee and scratched her ginormous, short haired bed-head. It was almost like waking up next to Einstein, that is, if Einstein was a woman who wore a floral bathrobe and house slippers.

It didn't help that she kept such late hours, having to deal with the many kids in the foster care as a social worker. Sharing similar sentiments about early mornings, Lila was honestly surprised how her mother could keep going on just four hours of sleep, a cup of coffee, and an English muffin. After handing her mother her usual morning special after it popped out of the toaster, Lila poured herself some orange juice and buttered two slices of freshly made toast before Kurami followed suit down the staircase.

"Hey Kurami! You want some toast?" Lila offered, gesturing to the Wonder Bread she was about to put away.

"No thanks," she said grabbing her jacket and backpack as she snatched a tangerine from the wicker fruit bowl on the counter and began peeling. Lila shrugged _'it's your loss,'_ and continued to munch on her toast as she put away the bread and butter. Like during usual moments of silence, Lila's mind began to wander before it returned back to the topic of her unusual dream, which was slowly fading into obscurity in detail.

She contemplated the reading she had uncovered about the concept that dreams were a process of information and memory -that seeing people you didn't recognize in a dream meant that you've seen them briefly passing by and don't recall them- along with unconventional theories that dreams are gateways to alternate realities or dimensions, parallel worlds that exist based on one sole choice. There was even one theory that dreams could be the key to time travel. That last theory seemed a bit more far-fetched than the first one, but Lila was always open to new possibilities. Visiting other worlds like the ones in her video games would be kind of cool, and having accessibility to time travel would help her undo a lot of major mistakes in her past. Maybe even give her the opportunity to get to meet her real parents, but before she could consider reopening that large can of worms, a sharp voice jarred her from her trance.

"Lila!"

"Hmmuh?"

"Snap out of it, Lila! We're going to be late for school!" Kurami shouted. Lila's eyes darted to the oven clock. School started letting people in at 7:15 and traffic was murder to get there on time after seven. They also lived fifteen minutes away.

7:12

Crap.

Lila chugged down the rest of her orange juice, quickly tossing dishes in the sink before dashing out the front door, snatching the keys to her sky blue Moped from of a cheesy ceramic bowl on her way out. The vehicle was a little old and worn and had frayed yellow star stickers on the front, but it could get the job done as well as it could for a sixteen year old with a learners permit. The seat stuck with condensation from the dew built up from the night before. Lila quickly wiped the seat with her bare hand before her flustered sister bustled out the front door.

"Jeez, you don't know when to hurry, do you?" she said irritably, quickly putting on a magenta motorcycle helmet.

"Well, sorry if I want a delicious and nutritious breakfast and a dry butt," Lila fired back, revving the engine before they sped off towards school. After a montage of being honked and yelled at by angry passerby cars and rude pedestrians, Lila dropped Kurami at the front of the high school and chained her Moped to a nearby tree with minutes to spare. Seconds after popping off her helmet, she instinctively glanced in the rear-view mirrors at her reflection before throwing up her hoodie and speed-walking to the nearest girls bathroom. She haphazardly threw down her book-bag and ransacked it like a cop padding down a perp for drugs before finding her emergency comb and started pulling at the unwilling curls that cascaded down her shoulders. If she pulled enough, she could almost see the lighter highlights growing out.

_Maybe pigtails were a bad idea..._ Lila frowned at the sore bumps on her head from trying to squeeze her helmet on and then fixing them, having to take out and retie her ribbons. _One of these days, I'm going to pass that driver's exam so I won't be the only junior without a driver's license. Then I'll keep saving and earn enough money for a car. That way, I will never have to deal with wet seats or having to sneaking off to the bathroom just to brush my hair again._

After slipping the comb back into her book-bag, Lila mentally geared herself up for another long, boring school day. _Oh joy._ Most of the day involved the teacher going on and on about iambic pentameter or the difference between ions and anions while Lila was endlessly day dreaming about being anywhere but here. It made her contemplate who thought their life dream was going to be to spending five hours a week teaching Shakespeare and chemistry by subjecting themselves to rowdy, disruptive high school kids. Oh well, the some of the teachers seemed passionate enough, so who was she to judge? After hours of mundane info-dumps later and a lunch with friends who talked about nothing in particular, the final bell rang as Lila quickly started putting away her things, hoping to escape the endless torment.

"Oh _,_ don't forget to do the odd numbers on pages two-hundred and fifty one to fifty three for homework tonight on Introductions to Quadratic Equations and Finite Variables," her math teacher, Mrs. Barker, suddenly decided to announce, causing Lila's whole class to groan. It was an universal concept that everyone hated when a teacher would hand out homework assignments at the last minute. Not only would it put a damper on the evening for those who had pre-existing plans, the homework would be unable to be completed during the time your mind was fresh and could readily ask questions if you didn't understand something. For Lila, it was the latter that always got her goat, and it was the very bane of her existence.

As she shuffled down the hallway, she could heard a voice calling out behind her exclaiming, "Kurami! Kurami!" Lila instinctively turned to see where my sister was, but much to her surprise, she was greeted by a guy's hand landing on her shoulder. He was blonde and a quite a bit taller than she was, his biceps appearing the size of cantaloupes, and Lila couldn't get over the fact of how cute he looked and the close proximity his hand was to her shoulder.

"Why haven't you called me back?" the mystery boy asked her. His sharp blue green eyes seemed to pierce into hers, as if to find a deeper meaning before realization hit him. "Oh! You're not-"

"Sorry. You've got the wrong sister," Lila gave him a tight smile as she shrugged his hand off her shoulder. "I'm her older sister, Lila."

"Oh. My bad. It's just, you two look so alike, I thought you were twins." She couldn't help but give him a perplexed stare. How? She had her hair dyed, curled, and in pigtails!

"We're not, I assure you. I'm born three months before her, and also I'm adopted," Lila recited with a strained expression, having heard this many times before. After the last statement finally registered, the teen backed up awkwardly with an apology and quickly made his exit. Yep. That word was always a guaranteed way to scare them off. It was practically a curse word in her own family, rarely said and a dangerous subject to bring up. After inputting her locker combination, low and behold who should show up next but her 'twin.'

"Hey Lila. How was today's lecture?" Kurami asked at she jogged over to her locker next to hers. Deciding to save that conversation until later, Lila thought back to her classes.

"The usual: Notations this, equations that. Things I could honestly care less about. I stopped listening when Barker started rambling on about things that had nothing to do with the class, like her teaching career and midlife crisis. No wonder she's called Barker. Barking all the time, that one."

"You know she can't help what her last name is, no matter how unfortunate," Kurami scolded. "Besides, she's doing you a favor. Astronauts have to take a lot of math and engineering classes before they are even considered for the space program. Which means you should learn to pay attention more, space case."

"I know... I'll try harder next time," Lila sighed, jerking her bag off the locker hook at the nickname 'space case'. At first, it had been a term of endearment, a testament to her love of astronomy, especially stars, but lately it seemed to be a portion of her identity. No matter how hard she tried, Lila was always drifting off into space during class. Mostly it would inhibit her learning ability, but sometimes, whenever there was a certain time of the day or during a particular lecture she couldn't focus on, Lila would be inspired and draw little things that came to her. Whether it was a bird or a robot made of cheese, it was a stream of creative consciousness that sometimes could ground her focus, depending on the subject matter. Apparently, she was only creative when she wasn't paying attention. Not the most productive things for a future astronaut to be doing.

"So that means _not_ doodling in your notebook." Her gaze followed her like a owl finding a mouse. "Let me see what you did this time..." With a clever grin, Lila gleefully ransacked the inside of her bag and proudly pulled out a red math notebook.

"I drew a picture of a keyblade on one of my post-it notes today. I call it the Rose Blade." The keyblade had a pink diamond handle with a green neck covered in rosebud vines, the key teeth part curling into a heart like two rose leaves.

"Oh lord... you and that game!" Kurami sighed before she took a closer look at the keyblade. "But that is pretty cool..." She pointed at the curled leaves. "I like the edging there. Where did you get the idea for it?"

"It just kinda popped into my head..." Lila shrugged. Her heart secretly warmed at her sister's genuine interest and adoration of her piece. It wasn't the first time she had shown her some doodle or another about _Kingdom Hearts._ Most of the time she would at least she would bother to look at them, even if she didn't approve of her hobbies, but there were occasionally small moments where she could gauge interest in her that made Lila feel like her daydreaming finally paid off. Unfortunately, the moments were just that, small, fleeting. Kurami seemed to illustrate that fact by claiming Lila was obsessed with the game series.

"I'm not _that_ obsessed. I play other games, like _Assassin's Creed_ or _Super Mario Brothers_ , so that's no excuse." The disdain in Kurami's eyes remained unchanged.

"Look, I understand that I like my things, and you like your things; that's just how individuality works. I just don't get why you care _so much_ about this game in particular."

"It mixes role-playing, _Final Fantasy_ , AND Disney characters- plus, the plot-line is _beautiful_! What's not to love?"

"You're such a dork," Kurami rolled her eyes, ignoring her question as she gave her a _'what-am-I-going-to-do-with-you?'_ grin.

"Cinderella's in it..." Lila smirked as she nudged her sister's side, almost succeeding in getting a rise out of her by mentioning her favorite Disney character, but whatever interest she generated quickly extinguished as Kurami stuffed her excess books into her locker.

"You're still a dork," she deadpanned, adding finality to it by slamming her locker shut.

"But I'm _your_ dork." Lila held a goofy grin and nudged her in the side with her elbow, still holding onto the notion that there was still a chance for her little sister as they walked outside the school's entrance. Everyone was gathering around their vehicles and were starting the first line of cars leading out of the parking lot. It was when they were close to the Moped that Lila told Kurami the idea that had been bouncing around in her head for the longest time.

"I bet it would be fun to live in the Kingdom Hearts universe... Slaying the Heartless everyday, meeting Disney characters, saving the world. Plus, if we had a Gummi Ship, we could just fly over all that traffic, easy," Lila remarked, crossing her arms. "All that sounds a lot more exciting than doing some stupid quadratic equations and logistics..."

"Yeah, but it's not real. It's just an excuse, an escape to be on your PS2 for twenty four hours straight-"

"That was a good day," she interjected coyly, grinned fondly at the memory of her infamous speed run. A glorious Labor Day dedicated to nothing but clearing the first video-game, living on a pack of Diet Coke, Twizzlers, and a bag of Doritos.

"-and besides, you need to get your head out of the clouds. We've got one more year before we graduate high school and make it out in the real world. You'll be an independent, emancipated adult, and you'll have to find a way of supporting yourself and making connections if you want to be an astronaut."

"Killjoy," Lila frowned.

"I'm serious, Lila. You have to start thinking about what you want to do. Astronauts require a lot of training in math and science, and only a handful of the best people get chosen to be astronauts. What if you can't become one or you rethink about being one? What will you do then?"

"I know that! I've thought about it, I'm just... trying to enjoy what I have now..." she trailed off, straightening the bottom of her skirt. Noting Lila's weakness against confrontation, Kurami sighed and continued with a softer tone.

"I don't mean to be a buzz-kill or anything. I just don't want you to spend your whole life wasting away in front of a video game when you could be out, having fun, making plans for the future. Escaping the problem isn't going to make it go away. Sometimes reality likes to shake things up- are you even listening to me?"

Lila blinked back at her, panicking that she had been caught day dreaming again.

"Yes?" she lied meekly, causing her sister to throw her hands up in the air in surrender.

"Whatever, Space-Case. I give up," she grumbled. "You keep trying to live in your little fantasy land, 'cause none of that stuff is ever gonna happen."

Lila threw her books into the Moped's compartment underneath her black, faux leather seat, thinking that now was going to be the perfect time to divert the conversation towards something else she had been curious about.

"So I just had an interesting conversation with someone today." Kurami arched her eyebrow in curiosity.

"Oh yeah?"

"Since when did you start dating and not tell me about it?" Lila relished in watching the pale expression shift to red painted on Kurami's face as she squirmed slightly against the Moped.

"Uh well-" She was cut off when Taylor Swift's infamous "Love Story" blare out of her little sister's purse. Eager for the interruption, Kurami's hand fumbled into her purse before successfully pulling out her cellphone. "Hello? ...Hey, where are you guys?" She answered before she turned all giggly and chatted animatedly with one of her friends on her phone while Lila put on her Moped colored helmet, remembering to adjust her ponytails this time. "'Kay, see you soon." She giggled before flipping her phone shut. Kurami had unlimited texting to match all her unlimited friends. She always _was_ the popular one.

"Aren't you going to get on?" Lila asked, offering her the second helmet.

"Thanks but..." A shiny, red convertible pulled up next to the driveway, a crew of girls that were applying their makeup appearing to be boxed in the seats like tuna. "My ride's already here. Besides, I don't want my hairstyle to get ruined by helmet hair."

_And a_ convertible _with its top down is the way to do that?_

"Oh... Well, alright. Just make sure to be safe," Lila smiled wanly, slightly intimidated by the fancy car as her pre-owned scooter kicked to life. She was about to take off before adding, "And don't think that this conversation is over! I want details!" Soon after they had taken off in their own separate ways, Lila's head found a different beat to sing other than Kurami's ever peppy and romantic Taylor Swift, settling for Aerosmith's "Dream On" after reminiscing the earlier conversation that kept echoing in her head.

_**"I bet it would be fun, slaying the Heartless everyday, meeting Disney characters, saving the world... All that sounds a lot more exciting than doing some stupid quadratic equations..."** _

_**"Escaping the problem isn't going to make it go away. Sometimes reality likes to shake things up."** _

**_"Whatever, Space-Case. I give up. You keep trying to live in your dream world, 'cause that's never gonna happen..."_ **

If she had both had known the real effect of those words, she might have never said them...

* * *

In a cream white and grey room, a tall man with spiky silver hair was practicing sword techniques on a stuffed dummy. His attire was lightweight, the armor only covering his chest and shoulders. His wrists were braced with armored, finger-less gloves as he whacked away at the fighting dummy with a kendo, bamboo sword. To an outsider, it looked like he was just doing the same movement, over and over, but he was really just honing his aim and practicing his footwork. If you didn't master the basics, you would never be able to learn more advanced techniques.

After a couple minutes, he began picking up the pace and gradually began to move faster and unleash more combos. With one final strike, he knocked an arm off of the dummy and beat it to the floor before the body slowly bobbed back up again. He smiled. That was enough training for now.

Exhausted, he cast away his sword and started rubbing away the sweat and grime acclimating on his forehead and neck. Throwing a towel over his shoulders, he opened a bottle of water and began taking large sips. He made sure to practice these drills every day so that he could get stronger. He could hardly believe that it had been almost a year since he had been training under the King as a knight.

Curious, he set down his water and unsurely reached out, concentrating all his energy into his right hand. He tried to focus on making the object of his desire materialize. What appeared instead was a black, falchion sword. His weapon resembled a large, red and black bat wing, emblazoned with a sharp blue, cat-like eye of darkness on the hilt. Disappointed, his eyes cast down towards the floor.

"Don't worry, Riku. You'll be able to summon a keyblade someday..." He turned in shock, not noticing that his mouse-eared friend had wandered in.

"Your Majesty, I didn't hear you come in."

"Please, Riku. I told you. Enough of the formalities. You can call me Mickey."

"Okay... Mickey," Riku said hesitantly. The name still felt weirdly foreign, but gave him a sort of self reassurance in using it.

"I know you have been trying to summon the keyblade, but don't let failure bring you down. Wounds on our bodies are easy to heal, but wounds in our hearts can take some time."

"But... what if the darkness never fully goes away? I've been here for a year, and I still can't even manage a brief summon. What if I can never use the keyblade? What if I'm not meant to wield it?"

"You may think that, but you are capable, Riku. I've seen it. Anytime I gave you my keyblade, it didn't leave your hand. You're just in a rough patch. We all go through them at one point. You have to find your own keyblade, but keyblades are fickle things. You can't choose them, they choose you. We just haven't found yours yet."

"You sound so sure..."

"I am sure. I know you can do it, Riku. Just have a little faith. What is the point of becoming stronger if you keep beating yourself up on every little mistake? A road less traveled doesn't mean you have to trip over every pebble."

"Wow... that is really philosophical of you, your majesty," Riku smiled.

"Oh gosh," Mickey laughed, gushing humbly at his own memoirs of training under his own master. "But if ya really think you're not making any progress, maybe the answers you're seeking can't be found here training with me. Might as well. I need you to go on an assignment. Actually, the timing couldn't be better."

"An assignment?"

* * *

When Lila came home, she immediately cast aside all thought of doing math homework and proceeded to run and turn on her Playstation 2 while throwing on the nearest clean baggy t-shirt and shorts. Slaying through hoards of Heartless was one of her methods of detoxing after another taxing day at school. The button mashing helped, along with the hack-n-slash combat style the game ran on. Out of unconscious habit, she began singing with the opening theme of _Kingdom Hearts_ and proceeded to dominate against all virtual evil. It wasn't long before she heard the door open downstairs.

"Hey Mom! How was work?" Lila shouted from her room, not getting up from the awkward stance she twisted herself into on her beanbag due to her immersed gameplay.

"Oh, work was _exhausting._ But it's nice to come home to a daughter who is _so attentive_ of her mother that she can turn away from her video games for more than five minutes." The humorous, dramatic tone of her sarcasm rang guiltily clear as she opened Lila's door. She took that as a sign to pause the game and pay attention. She quickly stood up and hugged her mother tightly, smelling some of the waifs of perfume lingering on her business suit. Her choppy, dark brown hair was combed this time and was less frazzled than it was this morning, now coming down just past her ears like a bob. She was American born, but she had distinct traits of Japanese descent running through her veins. You could see it in her facial features and her tiny, frail demeanor, and even though Lila wasn't technically related to her, she felt like her detached yet elegant air was inherited from her.

"So... how was school?" She pulled away, her hands awkwardly squeezing Lila's shoulders like she was trying to sync over some of her sympathy and stress.

"Fine. The usual. Homework, stuff and things. Kurami got a ride from one of her friends again."

"Again? I hope she's paying them for gas, with all the carpooling she does."

"I wouldn't know. She hardly ever talks about her life with her friends," Lila half chuckled and waved her arm dramatically, unable to get the picture of the blonde guy out of my head. "She probably doesn't think I'll understand how nail polish is a must during summer or whatever."

"She probably just doesn't want you to feel left out if she makes you hang out with her friends." She thought a bit before folding her arms. "What about that one friend of yours, Sarah? Maybe she could come over."

"Mom, that was like, five years ago. She moved, remember?" Lila deadpanned.

"Oh right... Well, what about your other friend, Michelle?"

"She's not my friend, Mom. She was just my lab partner that one time in Chemistry I."

"...Emily?"

"That's Kurami's friend, Mom, not mine."

"Oh... well. Sorry. Forgive me. I haven't had my tea yet." Mom looked away with a weak, chagrin smile before she was saved by the door slam downstairs. "Oh! Speak of the devil!" She looked down the banister and called out to other daughter. "Hey Kurami, how was school?"

"Fine..." Kurami said in disinterest, setting her books on the table and turning the TV onto _E! News_.

"You have fun with your friends?"

"Yeah. It was fine."

Mom always tried to make small talk with them these days. With work and school, they hardly had time for each other anymore. Soon, it would be off to college, and never seeing each other except for breaks and holidays. Lila and her mother stood there for a couple minutes in awkward silence before the former decided to break the tension.

"Umm... can I go back to playing my game, now?" she asked.

"Oh...! Yeah. Sure, honey, go ahead." Soon as her mother stumbled towards the door, Lila quickly nestled back into her pile of pillows on the floor. She could almost sense her mother's pity towards _. Poor little Lila. My daughter doesn't go out or have a friend in the world,_ _unlike Kurami, who seems to be out with her friends almost every weekend,_ she was probably thinking. Despite what her mom's initial impression was about her social life, Lila wasn't friendless. She just hung out with people who were either online or weren't very interested in her hobbies. She was about to un-pause the game before she noticed her mother was still standing there.

"...Mom?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you need something else?" Lila drew out.

"Oh! Well umm... Does Kurami seem... off to you?" Lila tilted her head and hummed thoughtfully for a bit before rocking back and forth.

"Hmm, no, not really. Why?"

"Well, umm, never mind. It was probably nothing...it's just that she seemed... quieter than usual."

"...She did seem kind of put-out this afternoon. I'm sure it's nothing, though," she said thoughtfully, trying to be positive about the situation.

"Well, dinner will be ready in about an hour. I'm thinking about ordering some pizza from Papa John's for dessert. You want your usual toppings?"

"Yep. Sounds good."

"Pineapple pizza it is then."

"Thanks Mom!" Lila grinned, thrilled she was going to have her favorite pizza all to herself. To most people, pineapple on a pizza was super gross, but she had always had a sort of weakness for it. To her, it was both sweet AND delicious! As soon as her mother left to order, Lila decided to briefly log onto her computer and see who was on Skype.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. ** _-_**

_**CalliopeQueen is online.** _

**KingAsshat:** That's why the steering wheel for the Wii sucks.

**Bakon:** You're just angry that I pwned ur ass on Mario Kart.

**KingAsshat:** THAT RAINBOW ROAD IS RIGGED, I TELL YOU!  
Oh hey Callie.

**CalliopeQueen:** Sup.

**kettlecorn:** Hey Calliope! Whatcha up to?

**CalliopeQueen:** Nothing much. Just playing KH.

**KingAsshat:** Of course you are.

**Bakon:** How's the 100% completion going?

**CalliopeQueen:** It's coming along. Trying to find all 101 Dalmatians and complete all the coliseum cups.  
Don't judge, King. You still haven't defeated that one Dark Souls boss yet.

**KingAsshat:** NO!  
The stupid armor keeps killing me!

**Maverick:** Whoa, touched a nerve there.

**CalliopeQueen:** Hey Maverick! How are you? I haven't seen you in a while. Pretty early for you to be up.

**kettlecorn:** Yeah. Isn't it like seven am over there in 'Stralia?

**Maverick:** Ya, mate. I've been working on a term paper since 9 yesterday. Thought I'd see who's on before I turn in.

**KingAsshat:** Hope that you are sung to sleep by heavenly didgeridoos.

**Maverick:** -_- Haha. Up yours, mate.

**CalliopeQueen:** Have I missed out on anything else, besides Matt's failure at life?

**KingAsshat:** HEY!

**kettlecorn:** LOLOLOL

**Bakon:** Not really. We've been playing League off and on. You wanna join in?

**CalliopeQueen:** Might a bit later. I'm really on a roll in clearing the Hades cup.

_**Unknown is online.** _

_**Unknown has joined the Gamers Club group.** _

**Unknown:** The door has opened...

**Bakon:** WTF?

**CalliopeQueen:** Who's the new guy? Did someone add him?

**Bakon:** I didn't.

**Maverick:** Nope.

**kettlecorn:** Not me.

**CalliopeQueen:** Matt's probably just trying to scare us again.

**KingAsshat:** Uhhh no. Sorry guys, it's not me this time I swear.

**CalliopeQueen:** ...  
I don't buy it.

**kettlecorn:** Yeah! Swear on it. Swear on something sacred.

**KingAsshat:** Fine. I swear on my pre-ordered Skyrim game.

**Maverick:** You have the new Elder Scrolls game?!

**KingAsshat:** Yeah! I've had it for like two weeks now.

**Bakon:** Dude!

**kettlecorn:** No wonder why we haven't seen u in a while.

**KingAsshat:** The hell you guys? I told u about this weeks ago that I was getting it!

**CalliopeQueen:** Yeah. We just didn't think you would actually buy it legally.

**kettlecorn:** Ya. I totally thought you were going to hack into the servers and create ur own MOD or something.

**KingAsshat:** Well I did, but that was during the beta. I can be a law abiding citizen every now and again.

**Bakon:** Yeah, sure, and you're called Asshat because you don't PK ur teammates for sport.

**KingAsshat:** That's KING Asshat, thank you very much. Respect the title.

**Bakon:** Guy gets into the leader board ONCE for team kills, and he suddenly thinks he's king of CoD.

**Maverick:** How is the game?

**KingAsshat:** I still think Oblivion is better, DLC wise. Plus the graphics for Skyrim are glitchy as hell. Freaking Bethesda.

**CalliopeQueen:** Guys, focus! Someone's in our chatroom.

**Bakon:** Yeah, dude. GTFO

**KingAsshat:** Creepy ass mo fo.

**Unknown:** The world has always been connected, but it has needed the right "Key" to unlock it...

**CalliopeQueen:** Matt, use your hacking skills and do something!

**KingAsshat:** So u acknowledge that I have skills? -w-

**CalliopeQueen:** Matt, PLEASE!

**KingAsshat:** OK, OK, calm down, Lila. I got this!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Lila waited a few moments, waiting for Matt to work his magic before she saw the line of text that made her sigh in relief.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

_**Unknown has left the Gamers Club group.** _

**KingAsshat:** There. Done.

**CalliopeQueen:** Thank you, Matt.

**KingAsshat:** np. Glad that weirdo's gone.

**Bakon:** Not all the weirdos are gone. UR still here.

**KingAsshat:** Shut up, Bakon. UR just jealous of my hacking skillz.

**Maverick:** U kno some of the stuff he was saying sounded like ur KH game, Callie.

**kettlecorn:** Hey ur right! It does sound kind of like something you would quote from kingdom hearts.

**Bakon:** Or Matt really is trying to freak us out.

**KingAsshat:** WTF?! I just told u I didn't do it! Besides I just banned the guy! Y would I hack into Skype just to ban myself?

**Bakon:** probably because you have an excuse to save Calliope~

**KingAsshat: ...**

**CalliopeQueen:** You guys are so dumb! D/X

**kettlecorn:** Awwww u like him!

**Bakon:** I called it. Checkmate shipping is a thing. Anyone else wanna bet when they'll get together?

**CalliopeQueen:** I DO NOT! Besides, Sora is the only man I need in my life!

**Maverick:** lol Callie. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you would prefer kh to be real like that Unknown guy says.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Lila scoffed and leaned back in her beanbag chair. This was such a role-playing cliche. _Kingdom Hearts,_ real? She would've had a better chance at eating her own socks. But hey, it was nice to dream.

Right as she was about to text back, she heard the notification blip and noticed that there was a line of text to her private log. It was Unknown, and his text read: **"You are the right Key. Do wish to proceed?"**

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**CalliopeQueen:** OMG you guys, now he's talking to me on private chat!

**Bakon:  
** W  
T  
F

**kettlecorn:** Just block him!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Trying to take kettlecorn's advice, Lila kept hitting block. Unfortunately, the results weren't great.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**_Unknown is offline._ **

**_Unknown is online._ **

**Unknown:** Do wish to proceed?

**_Unknown is offline._ **

**_Unknown is online._ **

**Unknown:** Do wish to proceed?

**_Unknown is offline._ **

**_Unknown is online._ **

**Unknown:** Do wish to proceed?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**CalliopeQueen:** I keep trying, but he keeps on talking about me being some kind of key for his door!

**kettlecorn:** Ewww weird.

**KingAsshat:** Maybe he's talking about a backdoor or a Trojan virus. IF HE SENDS YOU SOMETHING, DO NOT OPEN IT!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After trying to block Unknown one more time, Lila was becoming fed up in dealing with him.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**CalliopeQueen:** If it gets you out of here faster, FINE!

**Unknown:** The path is set. Remember, in the brightest of rooms, there is the darkest of shadows, like in the lightest of times, there is the darkest of hours. Neither can exist without the other. Expect both to be on your journey. I expect great things from you, Lila Hoshiyama. Good luck...

**_Unknown is offline._ **

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Lila stared blankly at her screen, thinking she had not read his message right, but under the dialogue were two words that made her blood run cold: Lila Hoshiyama.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**CalliopeQueen:** Guys. This guy KNEW MY NAME!

**Bakon:** What.

The.

**kettlecorn:** OMG SO WEIRD!

**Bakon:** Hell.

**Maverick:** Want Matt to look into it?

**KingAsshat:** Don't volunteer me for stuff!

**Maverick:** Me thinks the gentleman doth protest too much~

**KingAsshat:** Oh take ur Shakespeare and shove it up ur ass, Hugh Jackman!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Her friends' crude banter went like this for awhile, and for the most part it kept her calm, but it didn't erase the fact that someone had hacked into Skype and knew her real name. It was almost like the start of some horror movie Kurami liked or those creepypastas she'd been seeing too much of online...

Hoping to relieve some of her nerves, Lila's finger moved over the Start button to take her out of the menu. Then her game decided to make matters worse by bugging out with loud screeching noise, and then everything went dark.

"Nonononononononono! NO! I forgot to save! Please don't wig out on me now! Baby, please!" Lila begged as she shook the gaming console frantically, smacking the top of it to see if it would turn on. She flipped the on/off switch on the back a million times and held down the reset button. Nothing. She even checked to see if the system had accidentally become unplugged. It didn't.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**CalliopeQueen:** g2g u guys. My PS2's acting up.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In the corner of my eye, Lila saw Matt's username pop up as a separate conversation near the bottom of her screen.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**KingAsshat:** Seriously tho, do u need my help with the kh guy?

**CalliopeQueen:** Thanks but I'm fine. I do seriously need to fix my PS2. It froze out of nowhere.

**KingAsshat:** Ewww good luck.

**CalliopeQueen:** Thnx. Same to u and ur armor fight.

_**CalliopeQueen is offline.** _

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Now feeling a growing panic for something other than a lost file, Lila dove into one of her gaming boxes to look at the PS2 and _Kingdom Hearts_ manuals, and even started looking at the KH online forums for bugs in the game and its system. Neither said anything about a glitch that could do this, not even with a hacked game version. It wasn't a PS3, so it couldn't have the excuse of the system being hacked. Maybe the wires on her PS2 were bad? That would explain why it wasn't showing up on her TV screen, but that shouldn't have taken out the whole operating system. After dealing with the potential loss of her video-game, she sighed with only one thought on her mind.

"That is the last time I ever buy a video-game from a pawn shop..." Lila grumbled, trying to distract herself from falling into complete despair now that she couldn't play her favorite game anymore. It was a shame too. She was going for one hundred percent completion too, and she had gotten so close, almost two thirds of the way through. At the point of staying positive, she reminded myself that while she couldn't play most of the main series, she still had _358/2 Days_ on her DS and, as long as she had an uncorrupted game card, she could always get a new game disc or operating system, even if it would cost her a couple more birthdays and shifts at the grocery store and put a slight stunt on saving up for an used car. After feeling a bit overwhelmed in planning extra work hours, Lila turned to look at her clock, which flashed a red neon '9:20 pm.'

Had she really been playing that long? The stars would definitely be out by now, even if the daylight hours were starting to grow shorter. Throwing on her blue and white Adidas jacket, she slipped into her fuzzy, leopard-print slippers and jimmied the two twin French doors next to her closet. The best thing about her room was that it had its own balcony, although the doors stuck a lot because of the moisture. It was chilly out, but in a nice, crispy kind of way. The balcony overlooked our entire backyard, which was a couple of trees and a natural dirt road inclination down a reed covered hill that really needed to be mowed. It led to a nearby, swampy pond that she and Kurami used to skip rocks when they were little, though the algae always got in the way.

Looking up above, Lila smiled to herself at the clarity of the sky. Not a cloud in sight, no overcast tonight. Lucky for her, the light pollution didn't affect the visibility too much where she lived. The waning crescent moon had the appearance of the Cheshire Cat's smile, making the conditions ideal for viewing the Perseid's meteor shower. She gathered some items from her closet and sat down at a small desk with a brown leather journal, a stool, and white telescope on the wooden balcony. One of her favorite pastimes other than gaming was to look at the night sky. She was fascinated by space. The planets, the stars, the constellations; everything about space fascinated her. It reminded her that there's a whole big world out there and that they were only a small part of it. Who knew what lied in the great beyond? Maybe that was why _Kingdom Hearts_ was so appealing to her. There was opportunity, purpose, excitement.

_One of these days, I'll be looking at the world from way up there..._ Lila thought dreamily, charting and drawing some of the stars and constellations. Some scientifically cataloged, others she just made up. She wasn't really sure how astrologists read the sky, but it was still fun to pick out the constellations she did recognize. Cygnus was finally in the sky tonight, shining with a clarity and brightness that only rivaled by the Big Dipper and its southern counterpart, Crux, in guiding sailors home.

Cygnus was the swan constellation, or the Northern Cross, and its Greek myth origins story fascinated her when Kurami had explained it to her. Two friends, Cygnus and Phaeton, constantly competed with each other until one day, the two decided to race each other around the sun. During their race, the sun had burned their chariots, causing Phaeton to crash and become trapped at the bottom of a river under the roots of a great tree. Cygnus tried to swim to retrieve his friend's body, but he couldn't reach him. In Cygnus' plea, Zeus took pity on him and gave him the option of turning into a swan to save his friend, which would result in Cygnus giving up his immortality. Because of his selfless deed, Cygnus became part of the night sky along with his best friend.

_Huh... kinda reminds me of Sora saving Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, and Riku helping Sora close the Door to Darkness..._ Lila hummed to herself, thinking about the parallels between the game series and the myths of the two crosses before the slam of a door jolted her out of her space-case moment. She spied her mother putting dinner out on the patio and, judging by the heavenly smell, it was ready to eat.

_I've been out here for a while. Better go eat now before I forget._ Lila quickly closed her notebook and forgot all notions of crosses and brotherhood as her feet marched with the pad-pattering of her slippers before knocking on Kurami's door.

"Kurami, dinner!" Lila called, peeking her head into her barren room. Maybe she went out for a walk. She liked to do that at this time of the day. She was one of those kind of people who got really antsy if they had to sit in one place for too long. "Hey Mom, have you seen Kurami?"

"Yeah, I think she went out to the pond to get better reception on her phone. Can you go and tell her dinner is ready?"

"Sure." Not bothering to put on different shoes, since the pond was kind of a short trip and Lila felt really comfy in my house-slippers, she jogged through the vast backyard. Her mother, satisfied with her work, looked at the sky.

"Funny... It seemed clear a bit ago." She thought out loud as dark clouds began covering the starry night sky before she heard her phone go off inside the house. She pulled open the screen door to answer it, unaware that there were growing shadows following her every move with their bright yellow eyes.

* * *

Kurami usually liked to hike by the lake, but the sun had already began to set, and it wasn't like her to be walking in the dark. It wasn't until Lila arrived at the boardwalk above the pond that she noticed a shadowy figure standing there.

"Kurami?" Lila called out, but the figure did not turn to answer. The person was cloaked in a dark hooded trench coat, making it very hard to see them during evening hours, but she was almost positive it wasn't Kurami.

"Excuse me, sir, but this is private property. You can't just fish here when you please." Since their house was in a nice subdivision, it was common for some people to fish from the local lakes and sometimes confuse their pond with the lakefront properties nearby. However, despite her warning, the figure still did not move.

"Hey, mister, I'm talking to y-!" Lila reached out to turn the person around, but her hand only met air as she passed right through him. Stumbling from the sudden change in balance, Lila fell face first into the pond. It wasn't too deep, but she was still caught off guard falling into it. Images of dying and incomprehensible things she couldn't explain began flashing in her mind as she screamed and choked on some scummy pond water before thrashing back to surface, bursting out of the water like a spastic, breaching whale.

Coughing and sputtering, she quickly doggy-paddled towards the shore, bobbing out of the tangled reeds and algae near the edge of the pond. Crawling onto the mucky shore, she looked like an absolutely terrible mess. She had algae in her hair, was drenched head-to-toe in smelly pond water, her fluffy slippers were now ruined with muck and one was still floating in the pond after it had slipped off her foot, and she was now shaking terribly from the cold and the anxiety of drowning. And all because her hand had phased through some sort of hallucination. Reality had a twisted sense of humor.

Trying to regain composure, Lila began to take deep breathes to calm down the adrenaline shakes that began wracking through her body, making it even harder to hold a broken cattail to try and fish her other slipper out of the pond. After a series of attempts, and going through about three cattails, she managed to push the slipper back to shore, even if she didn't really want it back -that shit was completely stained with algae that no washer could ever get the smell out of- if not for just keeping litter out of the pond, then to avoid going back to the house and try and explain why she had a left a shoe behind in the pond that she shouldn't have been wearing outside in the first place. A grudge was slowly growing towards the universe who had caused her to hallucinate and fall before Lila was overcome with the shaking suspicion that she was being watched.

_"Do not venture out at night, lest you fall prey to the creatures of the dark..."_ She had remembered hearing that saying before, but she had never really taken it to heart. Until now.

Rubbing the grime out of her eyes, she focused on what appeared to be a pair of yellow eyes that were peering out of the far edge of a nearby thicket. Moving closer out of curiosity, the eyes wavered as Lila edged toward the thicket. Before she knew it, a bunch of inky shadows appeared out of the forest wilds. They had no faces, but they had a pair of large yellow dots for eyes, long twisted antennae that curled above them, and were hunched over with spread out, sharp black claws to match their equally dark bodies.

_No... It couldn't be! Are those... Heartless?! But, what are they doing here? They're supposed to be fictional!_ One twitched and lurched out to grab her. Lila jumped back and managed to dodge its attack before running away as fast as she could in her drenched state. Another began to pursue her, causing her to lose a shoe on the way as it lunged and forced her to the ground with a striking swipe to her back. It continued to scratched her, right and left, before she stunned it by whamming her other shoe into the side of its head. She took off in a mad sprint, whipping the slipper blindly at another Heartless' head in a pathetic effort to slow it down.

_What the hell is going on?! Why are they here?! Does this mean Kingdom Hearts_ does _exist?!_

Normally in any other situation, she would have been thrilled at that revelation, but for now she needed to get somewhere safe. Somewhere where she could try and process all this and not get killed. A sudden realization sent a cold, panic feeling shivering down her spine. It wasn't just her that was at risk. Her mother wasn't aware of the danger, and neither was her sister, who was still out there somewhere. Plans began reforming into how to find Kurami and get her into the house as Lila ran with the blind hope that she had wandered back home on her own, somehow being able to outrun the Shadows behind her. To Lila's relief and anxiety, Kurami was pacing in front of the wicker patio furniture.

"Lila, there you are! I was looking for you!" she greeted her older sister anxiously, as if she was the one who had suddenly left the house with no warning and was the one who had to retrieve her. "Mom moved dinner in the basement. She said her phone got this big storm alert and that it's going to be really bad-"

"Kurami! We need... to... get inside _right now_!" Lila gasped brokenly, trying to catch her breathe.

"Whoa, what's the matter with you? You're acting like you've seen a ghost. Why are you wet and barefoot and-...oh my god, are you bleeding?" She gasped, pulling back her hand from Lila's back, which was now covered with a few drops of her blood.

"No time! Get inside! NOW!" Lila pleaded, trying to push her sister inside, but she refused to budge.

"Hey, hold on! I try and find you, but you just run off into the woods without telling me. I could have broken a heel trying to find you."

"...Are you KIDDING me right now, Ami!? _You_ are the one who left, not to mention we have worse problems right now than a broken-!" A dark blur zoomed past and tackled a flower pot next to us on the table. The deafening crack splattered a mixture of plant, dirt, and water everywhere. The creature held one of the broken shards its mouth, which were lined with terrifying jagged, black teeth. Kurami screamed out of reflex, causing the creature to turn towards the sound. Kurami and Lila hid behind some of the patio chairs and shoved the back of the chair into the creature's mouth to keep it at bay.

"What the hell is that thing!?" she yelled, trying to shove the chair into its mouth even further.

"It's a Heartless... I think." It looked sort of like a Neoshadow Heartless, something Lila had only seen on missions in 358/2 Days and walkthroughs on Youtube. But this one was... different. Darker and eviler. While it was idle, she threw another chair at it, temporarily stunning it before she grabbed Kurami's arm and yanked her away from it.

"You _think?!_ What the hell is going on?! What's all this stuff about 'Heartless'?" Kurami deadpanned.

"I don't know! I think they're Heartless, bad guys from my game! But I don't know how any of this could've happen! _Kingdom Hearts_ isn't real!" Hiding themselves under some of the bushes near the house, since the entrance was blocked, Lila tried to make sense of things. "Ami, where's Mom?"

"She's safe! She's still inside!" Kurami exclaimed, grabbing her sister's shoulders. "Lila, we need to call the cops!"

"And tell them what? That a bunch of monsters from my video-game have come to life and are trying to kill us!?"

"It's better than freaking nothing!" She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and began punching in numbers before they heard another terrible shriek behind them. The Neoshadow was back on its feet and had brought friends. The sisters both tried to run to the house, but the Heartless were gaining speed. Lila tried to shove Kurami ahead, but she ended up dropping her phone which was quickly crushed underneath the stampeding heartless.

"My phone!" she cried helplessly before Lila kept pushing her to the screen door.

"Kurami, RUN!" Lila shouted as a bunch of Heartless surrounded the terrace. Taking a page from Roxas, Lila quickly picked up a fallen tree branch and began to whack away at the hoard, but it only seemed to stun or pass right through them.

"Girls, what are you yelling about-?" Yukino began before she was cut off by the charging Neoshadow. She had come out to investigate the distressing noises they were making and had slipped past Kurami on her way inside the house. The sound of a plate breaking was heard echoing on the veranda.

"MOM!" Lila cried out, trying to push past the Shadows to get to her while Kurami just stood there in a shell-shocked trance. Tears of frustration began to cloud her vision. Warped images of Heartless, sharp blinding pain, and suffocating pressure filled the next five seconds as time began moving again. Then, everything was bright all at once, and Lila felt her consciousness slip into darkness.


	2. Traverse Town Troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila gets a rude awakening after arriving in Traverse Town and realizes the sobering implications of being here, while Riku is doing reconnaissance in order to achieve his mission and ends up tangled in Lila's mess and all the emotional baggage that comes with it.

Riku was traipsing through the streets of Traverse Town next to Pluto, who had decided to sneak on-board the ship near take off, as the dog often had a bad habit of sleeping in the hull and wandering off without warning. Normally, he would have just locked the dog in the Gummi Ship until he was done with his errand, but Pluto had sounded so sad and pathetic with his whimpering and scratching at the hull's door that he eventually broke down and told the stowaway mutt that he could come with him, but that he had to stay close. The goofy, yellow dog seemed okay with the terms, proceeding to give the teen an occasional lick if his guard was down as he jogged at a steady pace next to him, panting happily all the way. Distracted with his mission, Riku began to contemplate about where to even start the search.

The King had told him that his mentor, Master Yen Sid, had sensed the presence of a potential keyblade wielder that appeared somewhere in Traverse Town. King Mickey thought it would be a good opportunity for Riku to overcome his block by watching over the wielder and observing their progress in the beginning stages of becoming a keyblade master. " _You can't learn the advanced techniques if you can't master the basics,"_ the King had said. Perhaps the brooding teenager could finally figure out what he was lacking by observing this new wielder. It was worth a shot.

Noticing that it had suddenly become unusually quiet, he looked over to see that the drooling hound was nowhere to be seen.

"Where on Earth did he wonder off to now?" Riku grumbled, running his hand through his long silver hair, annoyed that he had yet another task he had to take on. He really should have just put that dog on a leash. When he got back from his mission, he would have to consider asking the King for one, but that issue would have to wait. He had to focus more on the matter at hand and deal with finding Pluto on the way. By doing so, he had failed to notice that the dog had not only been an alley over, but had located a certain person of interest.

* * *

If one could describe Lila's current state as a place, it would be a void. It was vast and dark and empty and cold... She felt so tired. Like there was some enormous pressure on her chest that kept her from moving. Maybe she was dead?

Then there was a brightness, and the dark pressure gave way to a more light-hearted feeling, and then, her body felt heavy again and... wet, for some reason. Especially on her face. Maybe it was one of her crazy dreams again, and she was now finally starting to wake up. Lila stirred from unconsciousness. The side of her face felt slimy, like she had fallen into a pool of jello. Her vision blurred as she opened her eyes, seeing a big, yellow blob in front of her that seemed somewhat familiar.

"Five more minutes..." she whined, trying to close her eyes again which caused the figure to push at her chest to shake her awake, only managing to get a stir out of her. Waking up from dreams always tended to be a particularly hard struggle for her. Sleep was just so comforting, so peaceful, so freeing... Why would anyone want to wake up from a wonderful dream into a reality nightmare?

Reality decided it didn't agree with her logic as Lila's face was covered in another big slurp, leaving her with a slobbery cowlick and a wide-eyed look.

"Ugh! What the...? Guh-What _is_ that?" she exclaimed in disgust, wiping the slime off of her face and stared at the gross substance in her hand before she identified it to be drool and glared harshly at the culprit that had caused her rude awakening, though the look didn't remain for too long. Unsure if she was seeing things clearly or not, Lila rubbed her eyes with her dry, non-slobber covered hand and stared at the figure with a curious squint. "...Pluto?"

The dog barked excitedly in confirmation before he around spun around twice and bumped her arm with his head for attention. Out of habit, she began scratching his head, unable to process what exactly was happening before she gradually pulled him into a dazed hug, thinking how surreal this all was. Pluto was one of her favorite classic Disney characters. He was one of the reasons she always wanted a dog growing up, and here she was, petting him like he was just another stray dog she found on the streets.

"This can't be real..." Lila finally breathed out. He continued on like usual as she scratched him behind the ears. What was Pluto doing here? _If he was real... then that means-!_

Then the gears started to turn in her head. The lake, the Heartless, her mother and sister... everything began to gradually hit her at full force. An affectionate hug quickly tightened into a desperate cling as Lila began to shake, her breaths starting to come out as rapid, haggard gasps, like she'd had the wind knocked out of her. Oh... this must've been what it was like to have a panic attack.

Pluto whimpered as he struggled against her vice grip.

"Sorry...boy... Didn't mean... to crush you," Lila apologized brokenly, starting to feel tears pour freely down her face as she tried to loosen her grip, running her fingertips lightly through his fur as an apology. Most animals would have squirmed away or bitten you after that, but Pluto just sat there as Lila rested her head against him as she road out the rest of her panic attack. Pets really were great stress-relievers.

If anyone else had seen her, they would have ignored her or tried to find someone else who could deal with her, and she did not blame them. She looked like an absolute mess. In that moment, she was the _definition_ of an absolute mess. Her eyes were red and swollen from the crying she had done earlier, and now had bits of crust around the edges, so it was a wonder she could see at all. Her clothes were all wet and torn- what was even worse was that she had no shoes -and she was breaking down in an alleyway, so adding the little bit of insanity that a once-fictional cartoon dog was comforting her, she could seriously be classified as a deranged, homeless person. She didn't remember how long she sat there sobbing or why she was sobbing. Maybe it was just her not knowing how to process the event- but she was grateful that Pluto stayed in her arms until she was done. His soft, yellow fur was the one thing that seemed to ground to reality.

After her panic attack gradually faded away and her breaths became a little more even, Lila just held the dog for a bit before Pluto began to whine, as if to ask if she was feeling any better. Lila sniffed a little, rubbing her eyes with her damp sleeve a bit before she gave him a watered down smile.

"...I think I'm okay now... thanks," she said weakly, emotionally drained from the whole experience. Pluto decided that the best way to fix this was to pounce onto her chest and lick her face.

"Ack! Ewww! Haha! Pluto, stop it! Okay, boy, I'm feeling much better now, you happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?" she chuckled, trying to wipe off all the dog slobber as Pluto spun around in a circle excitedly. She attempted to stand up but was stopped by a dull ache that echoed through her body, causing her to almost teeter over before Pluto leaned over and acted as her cane.

She thanked him in again, acting as her emotional and physical support while she glanced around at her surroundings. Where she had woken up was a bricked alleyway with a bunch of crates that strangely looked both foreign and familiar at the same time.

_Where exactly am I?_ Lila thought as she pushed herself up and extended her knees, now standing upright and leaning up against the brick wall before she fumbled through her jacket pockets. She pulled out a phone, which beeped with a low, red battery that said 'No signal' before it shorted out from what she could guess was water damage from earlier finally taking its toll. _Great..._

Though, through some sort of miracle, her iPod was still working after being drenched in lake water, somehow shielded by the black ribbon that she used as a choker that was casually wrapped around it. Squeezing the necklace slightly in somber determination, Lila quietly rubbed her thumb over the silver disc attached to the end of the necklace before she tied it around her neck and looked down at Pluto.

"Have any ideas on where we are?" she asked him, as if she was actually expecting an answer from him and not acting like some deranged lunatic who talked to their dog like they were an actual person. Her insanity plea was slowly gaining more ground.

With a bark, Pluto walked down towards the edge of the alley. Not sure what else to do, Lila trailed slowly after him. Gradually, she was lead out of the brick labyrinth, Pluto always stopping at the edge to wait for her to catch up. After stumbling a bit on a loose brick tile, she found herself in a courtyard of sorts. The place was filled with more cobblestone streets and wooden buildings with archaic chain and neon signs hanging off of the store windows and bent lampposts. Judging by how the area was lit up, it was nighttime.

_Might as well take a look around and get my bearings,_ Lila thought with a shrug. In the next block over, the area was a bit smaller. It had a white building with a bell tower and a bunch of a little shops and buildings bunched up together next to a small floral fountain. As well-lit as everything was, giving Lila a strange sense of familiarity due to its resemblance to downtown New Haven, it seemed like no one was home. Without warning, Pluto suddenly froze in place. His fur bristled as he emitted a low, deep-throated growl. Sensing his unease, Lila moved closer to him before she found herself surrounded by armored and large body Heartless.

_Uh oh._ Lila fearfully looked around for some sort of weapon or shelter. Pluto protectively growled at the Heartless, barking at the armor heartless that clattered close to me.

"Come on, boy! We need to go!" Lila pleaded, urgently tugging on his collar, hoping to move the stubborn hound before the Heartless decided to get any closer. In a moment of panic, Lila sprinted towards a gate, hoping to find shelter behind it. Pluto reluctantly followed behind her, pouncing on any Heartless that dared to get in their way. Pushing hard on the gate doors, it almost appeared in vain that she was ever going to be able to open them before they gradually began to creak open. One or two Shadows sped off underneath her feet through the cracks of the doors towards the citizens out in the next district courtyard. The sound of screams could be heard as one of them claimed a heart from a middle-aged woman and transformed her into an Armored Heartless.

Pluto took off after them after Lila frantically tried to shut the door to prevent anymore from escaping, barely closing it in time before a Large Body Heartless slammed itself into the two doors with a deafening thud. Worried for their safety, Lila awkwardly scooped up Pluto into her arms after he had just finished off the last Shadow Heartless and sprinted towards a nearby shack that said 'Accessories' in blue and yellow neon and slammed the door shut with a shaking jingle.

"Hey there, how can I help y-... aww, it's only a kid," said a man with a blonde Mohawk and a toothpick in his teeth.

"Hey, I... resent... that remark. Do I... do I _look..._ like a child to you?" Lila wheezed, gesturing to her womanly figure before she set Pluto down and leaned against the door to catch her breathe.

"...the hell happened to you?" the blonde squinted, giving her a once-over. Not only had she run into his shop, barefoot, her wet clothes looked like they were put through a shredder that got electrocuted by a thunderstorm. Not her most attractive day ever.

"Long story..." she breathed out, leaning on her knees for support. Geez, she was out of shape! _Guess playing video games all the time finally bit me in the ass. Maybe I should have continued playing sports after middle school..._

"Hmmm... Heartless, I'd say, by the looks of it." _That_ got her attention.

"...How do you know about the Heartle-?" Lila paused, surprise and suspicion etched all over her face before her midsection cut her off with an audible growl, only this one didn't belong to the dog. She covered her stomach in embarrassment to mute the sound, but the man had already heard its pathetic groan for food. Barely given enough time to react, the man picked up an apple off of his work bench and chucked it towards her. It already had a small bite taken out of it, but it was still fresh.

"Here. Eat up. You're going to need it to fight against those monsters outside..." Looking at the man and the apple, Lila quietly mumbled a 'thank you' and hesitantly bit around the bite marks before voraciously scarfing down the piece of fruit.

"Looks like you were pretty hungry... The name's Cid, and I run this here Accessory Shop to protect against all yer Heartless needs- hey!" he declared before Pluto began sniffing the display, Cid scolding him with a sharp, "Hey! No eating the merchandise! What the hell is it even doing here? No dogs allowed! This is a place of business, not a kennel!"

"But-! He's just-! I can't just leave him outside," Lila exclaimed, not deterring the look on the scruffy guy's face. So she lied. "H-He's my service dog. He has to go where I go." It wasn't a complete lie. Pluto was providing her a service for something she couldn't do without his help. Cid grumbled a bit, not very pleased he had to bend the rules for some stupid mutt as he scratched the top of his head and ran his hand through his hair.

"Mmm...fine. But he better be well behaved! I'm not paying for any damage or cleaning up any of the messes he makes." It was kind of funny how this man worked. Clearly, he didn't use the rule of no shoes, no shirt, no service rule, since Lila was barefoot, but he had no problem of excluding pets. Still, he seemed to be kind enough, since he did offer an apple to a complete stranger. Picking up a piece of scrap metal he had laying out on the table, he began to clean it with an oil covered white rag he had tucked into his tool belt. "So why the long face, kid? You lost or somethin'?"

"One: My name is Lila, not kid. Two: I am not a child. I'm almost seventeen. And three: yes, I'm a little lost. Do you have any maps of this place, Mr.-?"

"Cid."

"-Cid." she corrected herself, feeling the full brunt of weary exhaustion. Oh right. _Cid_. Now it was all coming back. He was the guy from _Final Fantasy VII_ who lived with Squall and everyone in Traverse Town that upgraded the Gummi ship and ran the Accessory Shop in _Kingdom Hearts._ Duh. ...Wait, hold on. What?

"I take it you're not from around here. Let me guess. The Heartless got your world too, huh? Evil little bastards, they are. Creatures who take other peoples' hearts and their worlds. Professional home-wreckers. The place you ended up in is a world called Traverse Town, a world remnant for those who lost their homes to the Heartless." Lila gaped at him as if he said pigs could fly and crawl right into her ears.

"...Traverse Town? You mean _the_ Traverse Town?!" she asked, trying to piece her words and thoughts into a intelligible sentence.

"Well, if not, then I've been calling this place the wrong name for ten years." Was this seriously happening right now? Was she in the _Kingdom Hearts_ universe?

"No... that's... that's impossible." Lila could barely believe the words she was hearing. It had to be a coincidence. There was no way that could be true. That was impossible! Then again... all things considered, this wasn't the first impossible thing that had happened to her today. She felt an oncoming panic attack stirring up again but she managed to fight it back as she focused on Cid's voice, processing his words.

"I'm telling you, kid. It's the truth. I'm awful sorry that it ain't a lie. I wish it _wasn't_ the truth, considering what it means to be here- hey! Whatchu smilin' about? Most people aren't very thrilled about coming here. This is where people go when their home-worlds are destroyed."

Suddenly, it all made sense. The area and names _had_ looked familiar, not because of coincidence or resemblance to her hometown, but because she had played in this area multiple times in a game, in her _Kingdom Hearts_ games. She had finally done it. She had taken on a similar journey of Sora and landed in Traverse Town inside the _Kingdom Hearts_ universe. It was a dream come true! But it wasn't just a dream anymore, or some lousy fantasy. She really _was_ in the world of _Kingdom Hearts_.

_Guess I should learn to get a taste for socks..._ A goofy looking grin began spreading on her face as various impossible scenarios ran through her head. What would she do? Who could she meet? Who _should_ she meet? Where would she go? The possibilities grew with every quick and impulsive thought... until she processed the last part of his sentence. In an instant, all of her happiness drained from her face into a pale, sober realization.

_My world is...gone? It can't be... The U.S. Military can handle a few measly Heartless, can't they? And what about Kurami and... Mom? What happened to them?_ _Kurami was with me when all that weird stuff happened, and Mom was...nearby, I think. If that was the case, we would have all woken up right next to each other in Traverse Town... if they made it out. They had to have made it out! I SAW them... I think._ The memories were a bit rushed and blurry. There was always hope. When you had nothing, hope was all that was left.

"My mom and my sister were with me when we got attacked... Do you think there's a chance that they ended up here too?"

"Could be." Cid pondered before grabbing her arm as Lila tried to leave. "Whoa whoa whoa! Slow down. It's dangerous outside if you don't have protection. Here-" He began ransacking through some of his crates under the counter before he pulled out two items and put them into her hands. "-Take these." What Lila held was what appeared to be a potion and a weird, metal crank box that looked like an old camera from the 1920s. The metal felt cool in her hands, but it gave off an odd, vibrating aura of power. As if he read her mind, Cid explained what the box was.

"That there, is the Cid Cannon Mach 5. Just crank the handle there three times, press this red button here, and aim. Guaranteed to destroy any Heartless that comes within a twenty foot vicinity of the beam."

"Thanks Cid, but… why are you giving this to me? I don't know you very well, and I don't exactly have any munny…"

"I need someone to take the Cid Cannon out for a test run. It's a bit of a prototype I'm working on, so I need someone to try it out and give me any feedback on how well it performs. Also-" he pulled out a dented pad of paper from his back pocket and scribbled something down "-this is the address to some good people I know in District Two. If you can't find your sister by nightfall, I recommend you go there. They'll set you up with some food and a roof over yer head to sleep tonight."

Unsure of what say to that, not used to having that kind of support or blind kindness, Lila quickly said 'thanks' and shoved the piece of paper into her pocket. She was about to leave when she paused at the door. "…You sure I don't owe you anything?"

"Hey, no worries! I was going to throw out that old potion anyways. It was close to the expiration date. Just make sure you give me feedback on how the CCM5 worked. Consider that payment enough. That-" he sniffed before swiping his thumb across his nose. "-and your business here at my shop. If you need any help, you can come back here any time you'd like. Us refugees gotta stick together."

"But-"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, kid." Cid interrupted with his hands on his orange waistband. "Just take it and say "thanks."

"Thanks, Cid…" Lila whispered with a misty smile, not even minding that he called her kid again as she quickly walked out the door before she started bawling her eyes out again over something as trivial as a gift. She had been through a lot in the past twenty four hours, but now wasn't the time for crying.

_Hmm...that girl kinda reminds me of Sora the first time he came here..._ Cid thought with a chuckle, clearing away some of the extra storage boxes and rubble he had gotten out. _Whoops… forgot to tell her the Cid Cannon has a charge up time of ten seconds after five shots… Oh well. She'll figure it out soon enough._

Outside the shop, Lila sat down on the bench to recompose herself. She sniffed the lid of the potion before taking a small sip of the potion, strangely reminded of the familiar taste of green Gatorade, already starting to feel better as her major wounds began to close up and her minor wounds vanished entirely. It didn't make her feel completely refreshed, which she was guessed had to do with the quality of potion and the fact it was close to expiring, but it made her feel better enough to deal with walking around for a few more hours without feeling too sore.

She let out a deep sigh and chucked the empty potion into a nearby trash can that said "Reuse, Reduce, Recycle" before resting her head against the wall and glanced down at the item left in her hands. Unsure of where to start, she walked towards District Two and began fiddling nervously with her clothes, unconsciously twirling knots into her attire, an old habit of hers. She tried mending some of the torn bits, but each seemed to get worse and worse the more she fumbled with the material. After many feverish attempts at trying to fix the unfixable, Lila gave up in vain at ever trying to salvage her clothes and tied off the front of her shirt, pulling off and tying her blue jacket around her hips for good measure. The dampness was starting to make her feel colder, anyways.

"And this was my favorite shirt too... Ah well..." she sighed aloud as Pluto trotted beside her. "Could always be worse." Then suddenly, it was. Nine Heartless appeared in her path, made up of a weak variety of Purebloods and Emblems.

"The universe just _loves_ proving me wrong, doesn't it!?" she yelled to the sky in frustration. Remembering the item Cid gave her, Lila gripped the cold, metal box tightly around her fingertips and started cranking like mad. Usually, in video games, this was the part where she would be given easy enemies to fight during a tutorial of how to use her weapon. Normally, she would skip over these, having played through the game a couple of times, though now seemed to be the one time in her life where she would have preferred a tutorial. One of the Heartless leaped in front of her as a large, white-blueish beam radiated out of the cannon like artificial sunlight, vaporizing the Heartless entirely, along with some of its unfortunate friends behind it, throwing Lila back a little from the sheer force of the blast's power.

"Wow… this thing really packs a punch," she blinked in surprise, the Heartless looking a bit disgruntled as well before two more closed in. Not giving them another opportunity to attack, another laser fired out of the cannon, wiping them out and three more Heartless in the process as Lila's aim improved with practice. It looked like the cannon could only kill creatures of darkness, considering the buildings around her were still intact. Noticing their numbers were dwindling, more Heartless began showing up before she heard a bark from below.

Pluto!

He barked happily, spinning around in a circle before he dashed off towards a nearby street. After making sure her path was finally clear, Lila decided to chase after him. Following him in a hot pursuit, Pluto lead her to another district door and managed to paw it open as Lila fired off another two more blasts at the pursuing enemies behind them. Finally being able to catch my breathe again, I noticed that we had wandered into the Third District. The fountain of Lady and the Tramp glowed so peacefully against the grey marble tiled plaza that I didn't notice that Pluto's ears had perked up, as if a silent noise had gone by, and soon sped off towards parts unknown.

"Pluto! Wait! Where are you going? Come back!" Lila called out, trying to catch up to him, but was cut off by the hoard that had gradually closed in. So much for man's best friend...

* * *

Nearby, in another district, another person blew a sharp whistle.

"Pluto! Here, boy!" Riku called out before putting his right thumb and index finger in his mouth and blew out another loud, short whistle. Nothing. He whistled again. Still no response. After not hearing anything for a minute or two, Riku sighed and continued on with his search.

"Where _is_ that dog? He's always wandering off somewhere he shouldn't be..." Riku thought as he began walking down a dimly-lit street. Most of the shops had been closed down because of all the rampant Heartless, and anyone who did live there had their doors boarded up and their lights off, so getting any assistance from townsfolk was unlikely. It was so deathly quiet, it was almost eerie how calm it was, as the shadows of the area seemed to grow. The constant night sky didn't help either, suspecting that was what had originally drawn the Heartless to this world.

**Woof woof!** A familiar bark broke the silence as he saw Pluto run in front of him.

"What the-? Where have you been, you crazy dog? I've been looking everywhere for you." Pluto just stood there, his tongue lolling off to the side before he spun around excitedly and ran back where he had come from before pausing to look at Riku. "Do you want me to follow you?" Riku asked him. The dog just barked and bolted down the road he had just came from. Not wanting to lose Pluto again and not really sure of what else to do, the knight took off after him.

* * *

Feeling a small pout of abandonment wash over her, Lila tried to turn her hurt against her opponents. They were bigger and had greater numbers in this district than the others, and forgetting this important piece of information made her almost want to kick herself in stupidity. Why did she always forget the little details? Quickly, she cranked the Cid Cannon again for what she hoped what would be the finishing blow, causing the Heartless to flinch, expecting an oncoming attack that never came.

"Huh? What the hell? What happened? Why isn't it working?" Lila questioned as she smacked and shook the side of the box like it was desktop computer that was frozen or taking a really long time to load. Maybe she had cranked it too hard or in the wrong direction? Cid _had_ said it was a prototype, but she didn't expect it to fail so quickly. Sensing her dilemma, one of the braver Heartless smacked the device out of her hands, the cannon clanking on the ground further away from her behind some Shadow Heartless. In a moment of pure panic, Lila blindly ran towards the gate before I heard Pluto's call in the opposite direction. In a split second decision, she decided to follow his call and dashed around a corner, desperate to find him, but she couldn't see him anywhere. She was surrounded.

"Why won't you guys just leave me _alone!?"_ Lila cried out in vain desperation, angry and frightened that these monsters were so relentless. "You've already taken away _everything_ from me! What more do you want from me!?" Maybe they could smell fear like the KH forums had suggested. At that point, she didn't care. The swarms of Heartless were so vast that they made the area look shades darker as Lila backed up against a wall.

_I only just started looking for my family. I don't wanna die…_ Lila thought in fear as memories of her mom, Kurami, and the beautiful world she had left behind flashed before her eyes. In that flashback, she was interrupted by a yellow blur that sprinted in front of her.

"Pluto!" Lila cried out in relief as he growled ferociously at the Heartless, snapping a Large Body that wobbled towards them with the tenacity to crush them against the wall before it suddenly stumbled back into a barrage of crates from a blow it hadn't seen coming.

"Get behind me!" ordered a voice belonging to a young man with long, spiky silver hair, who had followed after the hound. He wielded a bat wing shaped falchion sword and wore a pair of wader blue jeans held up by two black belts with a closed black and yellow vest that had two black crisscrossing straps on the front. When she got a better look at him, it was then that Lila realized, with wide eyes, that the boy that had defended her was none other than Riku.

What... the hell?

Speechless, Lila was awestruck and confused, both by the fact that one of the famous island trio had come to her aid and was now fighting off the Heartless that relentlessly chased after her and extremely curious on why he was here at all. Wasn't he stuck in the Realm of Darkness? His appearance here only meant one thing: He had gotten out of the Realm of Darkness. He was safe. He had been strong enough to overcome the darkness. This boost of confidence caused a small spark of hope that fluttered in her chest to flourish into a raging forest fire. She couldn't die now! She had to find her family, and she needed answers. She couldn't afford to be weak! She needed to get stronger, for their sake!

Suddenly, a bright unknown light flashed and evaporated the Heartless trying to cling to her leg. It had only been for a second, but the light receded into a familiar key shaped weapon in her right hand before it vanished. The remaining Heartless retreated back in fear of the light, though they were not the only one stunned by this new development. Riku's sea foam eyes turned storm-like at what he had seen before he decided to take advantage of the situation, making short work of the leftover Heartless by moving with such strength and agility that Lila couldn't even see the tip of his sword.

Waiting for the last Heartless to vanish was when Lila finally allowed herself to slide down to the ground. Shaking from a weird mixture of fear, happiness, relief, sorrow, and adrenaline, her body just couldn't take it anymore as she dropped to her knees and cried broken sobs from emotional overload.

Riku stood there silently at a loss of what to do. He had never really been good around women, let alone crying women. But he felt like he had to do something. So, awkwardly, he placed his hand on Lila's shoulder and let her cry myself out.

"It's okay... it's alright... you're uhhh... you're safe now," he soothed her as he cautiously patted her back. He was wrong. It wasn't alright. She wasn't alright. He was probably telling her all these things in order to make her feel better and to try to get me to stop crying and going into shock, but somehow, his lies really felt comforting at that moment.

"I'm sorry..." Lila sniffed in-between sobs, trying to swallow the bitter, twisted emotions she felt as she tried to wipe away all her tears onto her arm. "I really don't cry this much. It's just been a really long day..."

"Yeah... you look pretty awful," he admitted bluntly, which Lila thought was his strange way of trying to be funny. Oddly enough, it worked. She choked on her own sobs with laughter threatening to break.

"Well... you would too, after all I've been through today," she let out a breathe with a wan grin before she realized how gross she must've looked judging from the amount of snot on her arm. "Oh god, I'm a mess. Look away for a second, please. I'm hideous." Even though the damage was already done to her image and first impression, he complied and let her finish straightening up herself as best as she could. "Okay, you can look now."

Riku gave her another a once-over before bluntly stating, "You don't look all that different."

"Well gee, thanks. You really know how to make a girl feel real special," Lila frowned with heavy sarcasm, but still felt that thanks were still in order. "Thank you, by the way. You know, for saving me..." The tone in her voice alluded to a more vulnerable part of herself, suddenly feeling shy in front of such a would-be celebrity in her eyes as she began to anxiously twist the tied sleeves of her jacket.

"Sure. It's no big deal, really," he shrugged before extending his hand out towards her. "Here. Give me your hand."

Lila looked dumbly at his hand and then up at his eyes before she cautiously took his black-gloved hand, suddenly reminded of the game's cinematic opening. His eyes were still as blue as the sea-foam of the ocean wave that had closed in behind him.

"Thanks," she muttered quietly as Riku helped pull her back onto her feet.

"You okay now?" Riku asked hesitantly as she pulled her hand away and quickly dusted off her shorts.

"I'm fine..." Feeling a small blush of shame flood onto her cheeks, Lila suddenly found the brick ground very interesting. Why the hell was she acting so nervous anyways? He was just a guy. Given that if she had been born in this world and never known about _Kingdom Hearts_ , Riku would have been just a regular guy to her. Trying to think in that mindset, Lila casually asked with latent curiosity, "So ummm... what are you doing here, Riku? Aren't you supposed to be on your island with Sora and Kairi?"

Her innocent act of trying to make small talk majorly backfired as Riku immediate gave her an incredulous and suspicious look.

"How do you know my name? ...Actually, how did you know any of that?"

"Uhhh..." Lila began dumbly. _Crap. I did not think this through. I just blurted out his name and casually talked about his personal life like we were old friends, and now he thinks I'm some weird creepy stalker!_ Then again, what else was he supposed to assume? How was she supposed to tell him that _'In my world, you're a fictional character created by Square Enix and Disney, and that's why you ended up the way you are?'_ Yeah, that was going to go over well. Something in her gut told her he wouldn't take too kindly to hearing that tidbit of information, so Lila decided to lie and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"I know Sora!"

"You know Sora?" Riku repeated slowly, trying to take everything in.

"Y-Yeah," Lila smiled weakly, lying right through her teeth. Technically, it wasn't a complete lie. She did know Sora... in a way. He just didn't know her. He was actually her favorite character from the franchise, so she knew a lot of painstaking details about him, not to mention she'd played all the games like nobody's business. Just thinking about that and explaining that to Riku made her come off as an even more borderline stalker and a fully fledged loon.

"Funny, he's never mentioned your-... I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"Lila. Lila Hoshiyama."

"Yep. Definitely isn't ringing a bell. I would've remembered a name that weird. Then again, it has been awhile..." Lila frowned at the sudden sharpness that came from the name comment, Riku appearing to be deep in thought before he eventually sheathed his Soul Eater sword. "For a second there, I thought you just knew my name because the King maybe had told you about me coming here." Lila felt herself do a frustrated mental face palm. Why _hadn't_ she said that instead? The King was more aloof in the games than Kairi or Riku ever was. It would've been way easier to lie and say that she knew him rather than his close best friend! Stupid, stupid!

"No, I... I just remembered having overheard him looking for you one day. He probably doesn't remember me all that well," Lila downplayed her lie, which even sounded more suspicious. Oh well. Too late now. If she went back on what she had said earlier, everything she had just said up until now could have been discredited. _I have dug my grave, might as well lie in it._

"Is that so...?" Riku trailed off, getting a thoughtful look in his eye. "Anyways, you'd better come with me. There are some questions I'd like to ask you, more specifically about that light I saw." At a loss for a defense, her stomach stepped in and prolonged the inevitable conversation with a slight gurgle. "Ummm, maybe after we get you some food first... and probably some decent clothes too."

"Umm... yeah. Maybe that would be best," Lila admitted sheepishly, self consciously wrapping her arms around her midsection. "Actually, I think I know a place." She fumbled around for the crumpled piece of paper she had stuffed into her jacket pocket.


	3. Reaching the 7th Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go from bad to worse when Lila and company arrives at the 7th Heaven bar. Riku tries to get answers, but only gets drunken rambling in return.

The area they arrived in appeared to be a safe zone within the second district, since there were no Heartless around, but it didn't make the area _look_ any safer. Judging from all the traffic cones and piles of wood, the town was becoming so overcrowded that they had to start pushing the construction of other districts in order to house everyone. There appeared to be some progress on a fourth district, but it was closed off with construction tape and sawhorses.

The paper had taken them to a run-down building at the edge of the district. Judging by the smell and sketchy neon lights, Lila immediately assumed that the place they ended up was a bar or some sort of nightclub. Riku looked around, thinking they had missed a turn and gotten the wrong building.

"Ummm... Are you sure we have the right address?" he asked, Pluto's claws clacking slightly on cobblestone as the dog spun around in excitement. Hesitantly, Lila checked the paper in her hand again.

"Yeah... it says '7th Heaven' on the sign," she pointed up towards the neon sign. The name struck her as familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she had heard of it before.

"Yeah but... a bar?" Riku questioned, hesitant to go inside, but Lila just shrugged and made a motion to open the door to the building before it flung open by itself as an overweight middle-aged man was suddenly thrown out into the street, nearly knocking her over. A buxom young woman with long dark hair stood in the doorway with her foot in the air before she lowered her boot and took on a more relaxed stance.

"And stay out! Don't come back until you learn some manners, pervert!" the woman huffed before wiping her hands. The man just lay there in a blubbering mess, deciding it was better to rest there in the street as he passed out.

_What the hell!?_ Lila thought, being very close to the line of fire. _She literally just_ kicked _a guy out of the bar! What on Earth was Cid thinking, sending us here?_

The woman's sharp brown eyes looked almost crimson as she flicked her long black hair over her shoulder, noticing the onlookers across the street as Pluto sniffed the unconscious man. It took a moment before Lila figured out why 7th Heaven sounded familiar.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked us with a bright smile, as if she hadn't just drop-kicked a two hundred pound guy out her front door like he was a football.

_Oh my god, it's Tifa! Tifa-freaking-Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII!_ Lila stared up in awe before she managed to stammer out an, "Ummm... w-we were given d-directions from Cid to come here?" Lila handed the girl the piece of paper with a shaky hand, unsure how she would react while Riku stared at the woman cautiously, carefully observing her every move. Even he thought she was intimidating as hell. Her dark eyes scrutinized over the horribly drawn map on the old receipt along with some illegible scribbles before Tifa recognized the Accessory Shop logo on the right hand corner of the piece of paper.

"Ahhh, okay! Come on in. Make yourselves at home," Tifa greeted cheerfully, folding the piece of paper and putting it into the pocket of her black leather shorts. "I'll try and see if the spare room upstairs might accommodate you. In the meantime, you two hungry? I've got a great chef workin' the counter, and drinks are on the house for first timers."

"Sounds okay to me. You in?" Lila turned towards Riku, who seemed a bit hesitant in entering a sketchy looking bar, but eventually let out a soft sigh and nodded.

"Great! My name's Tifa. I'm the owner of this fine establishment, and I will be your waitress tonight," she cheered before grabbing two menus and a pad of a paper, leading them to a table. She started tapping her notepad thoughtfully with a pen she plucked from behind her ear as she read the specials. "So we have vegetable stew as the soup of the day, and a lovely deal for couples, the Italian lover's special: spaghetti with meatballs and Parmesan cheese, all on top of one big plate with two forks."

"Oh no, it's not like that-!" Lila stammered around the same time Riku coolly finished with, "-We're not together."

"Oh..." Tifa frowned, sounding almost disappointed before she shrugged and continued tapping the notepad. "Well, I have some other specials that might interest you. You can either have the baby-back ribs with your own set of barbecue sauce, the farmer's choice brunch with eggs, sausage and grilled cheese, the brigade bistro sandwich with everything but the kitchen sink-"

"Surprise us," Riku interrupted, not really very interested in being here. He was only here to grab a quick bite to eat and get some answers.

"Great! I've got an excellent special on buffalo wings that has this amazing dipping sauce that will melt your face off! Same for you too?" Lila just nodded, not really caring what she had as long as she ate _something_. Maybe it would take away the hollow feeling she had inside. "Okay, two orders of spicy buffalo wings, but first, can I get you two something to drink?"

"...What would you recommend for someone who just lost their entire home to the heartless?" Lila finally spoke up, morbidly holding her head in her hands for support.

"Hmmm... Sounds like you're due for a Long Island ice tea," Tifa frowned as she scribbled down on her notepad before looking towards Riku. "And you?"

"Water will be just fine," he waved casually, showing he wasn't the one who need cheering up.

"Okay, party boy. Don't go crazy now." She arched her eyebrow with a smirk as she sauntered towards the counter. "Hey Joe, I need two orders of flying cattle on fire, and make them nuclear," Tifa shouted after ringing the silver call bell and pinning a piece of paper on a close-pin line. A skinny Italian man with a black mustache in a white chef uniform snatched the order from the pickup station.

"'ey, Tony! Tifa says she wants-a two-" he began before he was interrupted by a larger Italian man wearing an apron and a pink shirt with cuff-links.

"I heard her," replied the portly man. He had a dark mustache like Joe, but he was partially bald and despite being the head chef, his _sous_ chef Joe was the only one who wore a chef hat.

"Tell Tifa I cannot-a work-a in deez conditions," Tony frowned, throwing his arm up dramatically. "I am-a an artist, a _cuoco italiano._ I cannot-a just disgrace-a my homeland with deez-a dribble to a customer who won't appreciate-a my genius."

"Tifa, Tony say-" Joe began before Tifa cut him off.

"Yes, thanks Joe, I got it," Tifa sighed in exhaustion as she leaned on the counter, trying to mentally prepare herself for the argument she was about to have for the ten thousandth time. "Tony, as I told you before, you are a _chef_ , not an artist. You have been cooking for over twenty years, ten of which you have served here. Now I understand that you might not feel appreciated, but maybe people would appreciate your 'genius' more if you stopped serving your own type of alcohol from your own brand of wine instead of what they _actually_ asked for."

"I am-a not going to be serving dem dat cheap-a dreck," Tony expressed enthusiastically, his love for food almost as great as his colorful use of Italian. "My-a meals can only be appreciated with-a fine wine."

"-That no one can afford," Tifa argued. "All these people have been going a rough time. They need a little pick me up to take the edge off of a long, hard day. The _least_ you could do is let the people get what they ordered." She threw up her hands, trying to reign back her temper that was still spiraling from the incident earlier. "I'm not having this argument with you again, Tony. Just _please,_ make the food, okay?"

"Fine, _signorina,_ but don't blame me if your _stile orribile_ makes the food _gusto da schifo,_ " Tony warned, grumbling 'mamma mia' and something else Italian under his breathe while he began setting up the fryers. After running some of the tap and adding some ice and other ingredients, Tifa was soon back with our drinks.

"Here's your water and Long Island ice tea," Tifa said pleasantly, setting down a water glass and an brown ice tea with a lemon wedge and bendy straw. Lila looked down at her drink, rubbing her thumb over the beads of condensation running down the glass, wondering if it was worthwhile coming here after having to see how much a struggle it was just to get some hot wings. Riku seemed to be having similar thoughts, but just decided to take a sip from his glass instead.

"Alrighty then! Guess I'll leave you two alone. Your order shouldn't be too long. Please do enjoy yourselves," Tifa gaze turned into a sly, knowing smile after winking in Riku's general direction as she added, "But don't do anything I wouldn't do~" And with that said, she sashayed away from the table towards another customer.

"I told you, it's not like that," Riku grumbled, the crooked smile still holding on the bartender's face as he ran his hand through his hair impatiently. This woman's assumptions just seemed to rub him in the wrong way. Then again, it did look somewhat like a date, but it's not like he had a clue how those went, considering he had never been on one. He wasn't really in to the whole dating thing, all with that romantic mushy gushy mess all the girls and his friend Sora seemed to fauna all over. Still, it didn't stop the him from teasing the latter about it though. Speaking of which...

"So... how is it that you know Sora again?" Riku asked before Lila nearly choked on her ice tea.

"O-Oh... umm, well, I met him once when he was traveling through my world." She quickly began drinking her tea with anxious ferocity to distract from the lie. Riku didn't look convinced.

"Uh huh..." he frowned, not thinking for one second that she was telling the truth. _Come on, Lila! You've got to be more convincing than this! Riku knows liars. He can probably smell the fear coming off of you right now! Add something true to the mix, something only people who knew Sora would know._ Trying to give herself more time to answer, Lila sucked down almost all of her tea before she realized it was delicious.

"Wow, this is really good," she marveled over the sweet, fruity taste before she pulled Tifa aside and asked, "One more of this please." Tifa gave her a nod and picked up the drink before Lila continued. "You see, I thought he looked kind of weird because he had this anthropomorphic dog and duck following him everywhere, plus his spiky hair seemed to defy all known laws of physics. But he was nice enough, kind of childish though."

_Okay, maybe she does know him,_ Riku thought in resignation, though he was still a little suspicious. Then again, maybe he was just being paranoid. He wasn't as trusting as Sora was.

"So what is it you wanted to ask me?" Lila inquired, trying to hide her nervousness by changing the conversation to virtually anything else. "You said something about a light?" Recognition flashed in Riku's eyes before he adapted a more serious, business-like expression, suddenly reminded of why he was actually here.

"Right. Well, the thing is, I was sent here by a friend of mine to search for a person who wields a certain power, a power that could defeat and destroy the Heartless," he explained, folding his hands together before resting his head on them. "There aren't many of us around nowadays and my friend thinks that since those in Traverse Town are often people who've lost their worlds to darkness, and this weapon often shows up in the wielder's hour of need, theoretically, this person would be most likely found here."

"What are you saying? What kind of power?" Her curiosity was peaked.

"Thing is, I think you're the person I've been looking for." He stared at her with a solemn look in his eye. _Wait- he's not saying what I THINK he's saying, is he?_ "I think you could be the next wielder of the keyblade."

_Oh my god, he is..._

"Shut UP!" Lila exclaimed with a dropped jaw as she slammed her palms onto the table in disbelief, effectively startling the teenager and everyone else in the bar. They all gave her judgemental looks before Lila awkwardly sat back down in shame and tried to reign in her excitement. "I mean, that sounds so important, but... why me?" She was astonished to think anyone would need her for anything this important. This couldn't seriously be happening, right?

"I don't know. All I was told to do was to observe your progress," he shrugged before leaning casually back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

"So you're going to follow me around like some sort of stalker?" Lila frowned, not exactly thrilled that she would have someone watching her every move like a glorified babysitter, especially someone who had previously been affiliated with darkness, and could probably blend into the shadows and mask their presence like a ninja.

"I wouldn't like to word it exactly like that," Riku began before trailing off, not really answering her question. It's not like he _wanted_ to follow her around; he barely knew the girl. But what was he supposed to do about it? His hands were tied.

"Isn't there some other way? Couldn't I, like, train with somebody or something?" Before he could answer, a plate of hot wings was put on the table, instantly distracting her from the conversation. "Oooh great, I'm starving!" Lila eyed them eagerly before chowing down on them with enthusiasm, which in retrospect, probably didn't look all that attractive, but at this point, she didn't care. Nothing was getting in-between her and those hot wings... except for maybe her taste buds. It was very gradual, but the slow kindling of heat soon grew into an all out forest fire in her mouth.

"Hot... HothothohotHOT! Holy SHIT, that is hot!" Lila complained as she fanned her mouth, swearing that she could see smoke come off of her tongue as she doused it with the remainder of her tea. Riku stared at her like was a deranged lunatic as he sucked the meat right off the bone with no complaints.

"It's not that bad," Riku scoffed as he tossed the bone onto his plate, thinking she was acting like a big baby for overreacting over a little spicy food.

"Not that bad?! These things could melt ACID!" Lila exclaimed before handing Tifa her glass. "Another one, please, and keep 'em coming."

"Try and pace yourself, honey. The tea's not going anywhere," Tifa laughed, resting her hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

"Don't worry. I will," Lila eyed her plate gravely, thinking she was talking about the buffalo wings. The reason Lila had to keep ordering drinks was because it was the only way to deal with the hot wings. However, she began to notice that the more she drank, the happier she became. Maybe it was the fact that she finally had something in her stomach or could relax for the first time in what felt like forever, but Lila's mood was really starting to perk up.

"If you're having such a problem with spicy food, maybe you should order a glass of milk," Riku suggested as she started chewing and sucking on an ice cube.

"Yeah... yeah, you're right," Lila nodded, thinking he was a fucking genius. Milk took the sting outta everything. Riku was so smart. "Hey... hey Riku?"

"What?"

"Did yew know that cows give more milk when they listen to music?" She informed him out of nowhere, thinking that it was very interesting dinner conversation.

"Uhhh... no. No, I did not know that," Riku admitted dumbly before thinking, _Nor did I want to_.

"Seriously, yew could be singing Elvis Presley's 'Milkcow Blues Boogie' and BOOM!" Lila smacked the table with enough emphasis to rattle the silverware. "Dere it izz to go with your milk and cookies! Makes reaaaaaaaaally good milkshakes too. You ever try to milk a stressed cow? Very bad idea, _especially_ when it's a bull."

"That's... nice," Riku said with a watered down smile, completely thrown off by her comment and having absolutely no idea what the hell she was talking about. _She's acting really weird. Was she always this weird?_ he thought, wondering why the universe stuck him with this lunatic while he tried to get back on track. "Now, about what we were talking about before-"

"Speaking of milk, look at how bootiful she is. Her boobs could crush boulders! ...I wish I had boobs like that," Lila exclaimed with gusto about Tifa before thinking of the benefits of being that pretty. _I would never have to push in my chair or hold a door open, not to mention I could get all the free drinks I wanted. Like that Long Island ice tea! I need one more of those! That tea is SUPER good!_ "Don't chu wish I had boobs like that too?"

"Uhhh..." Riku blanched, not knowing how to answer that question as he squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.

What the hell? Why was she saying all this junk? It was like all of her normal restraints were lifted off of her shoulders. The stuff she said sounded weird but it felt like the right thing to say. It left a foreign taste in her mouth, but everything just kept spilling out like word vomit, like her word-to-mouth filter was turned off along with her inhibitions. It was liberating, and she felt awesome!

"I know how all yew dumb bunny guys think. Yeeeew only care about how a girl looks like," Lila giggled and pointed a finger in his face with a sly grin, acting like she had figured out the secrets of the universe as she jabbed her thumb towards Tifa. "I bet her milkshakes bring aaaaaaaawl the boys to her yard."

"Actually, I don't think that at all," Riku defended, a little insulted that she had thought so little of his gender. "About the appearance thing. Despite what you may think, I know plenty of people who look nice on the outside but are ugly on the inside. Believe me, I know." A dark look glimmered in his eyes but it went unnoticed as Lila kept calling him a 'dumb bunny,' over and over as she giggled madly to myself. There was no arguing with her. Lila was barely lucid right now.

_Okay, what the hell is wrong with her?_ Riku thought, trying to explain his acquaintance's odd behavior. _She was so depressed before, but now she's happier than Sora in a candy store!_ _Why is she acting like this? She's acting almost like..._ And then it occurred to him where they were eating. _Wait, is she drunk!?  
_

"Lila... How much _'tea'_ did you have?" Riku inquired as Lila began laughing brokenly as she clacked her fourth glass of tea against the other three empty containers.

"Alllllllll of it," she drug out with a silly grin on her face, the smell of noxious alcohol strong on her breathe. Riku waved a hand over his nose in disgust. That was about all Lila could remember before she swayed off the table and suddenly blacked out.

* * *

The world felt like it was spinning when Lila woke up. It hurt to open her eyes, and the noise... why was there so much noise? The hum of the air conditioner, the turn of the fan... She felt like she could even hear ants marching across the floor. After trying to get a few calm breathes in, Lila managed to peer around the room, only to pause in confusion. She wasn't in her bedroom.

Her bedroom was filled with posters and drawings, and glow-in-the-dark star stickers. Instead, it was in a rundown room with concrete walls covered with black and white picture frames and large pipes running across the ceiling. The only outside light was from a small window that had the luminescent view of Traverse Town behind its curtains, which Lila was grateful for, since brightness hurt her eyes as well. She was surrounded by flat pillows and a pink checkered quilt instead of her usual pile of lopsided pillows and fleece blanket with powder blue stars.

Trying to retrace how she had ended up here, Lila was interrupted by a brief knock on the door, which felt like a sharp needle in back of her head. The knock was followed by the sound of excited panting and clacking of nails on the wooden floorboards after the door opened, before she was, once again, awoken by dog slobber.

"Ugh Pluto, could you keep it down a notch?" Lila whined, weakly trying to push him off. His barking felt like someone was yelling in her ear through a megaphone before someone said 'down boy' and managed to push him outside the room.

"Good, you're awake." Her heart jumped briefly at the recognition of silver hair as her inner fangirl leapt in joy but began to immediately calm down when the throb pulsed the back of her head. Riku was indifferent but he seemed relieved she was awake, though he seemed to be more cautious around her than before. "How are you feeling?" Like crap, but she didn't need to tell him that. Her disheveled appearance and the squint-eyed glare she was giving him said enough.

"Oh god, my head..." Lila moaned as she clutched her head, trying to sit up before she flopped back in bed as a huge wave a nausea flooded over her like rolling waves in a storm. Was she dying or something? Her mouth felt so dry and tasted really weird.

"Here, drink this." As if he had read her mind, Riku handed Lila a glass of water, which felt like ice cold, sweet relief running down her parched, burning throat. "Tifa left these up here for you, so you have a spare change of clothes." He pointed towards the box of clothes left by the nightstand, which were nicely folded clothes but packed together so much, you knew it was a lost-and-found filled with old winter coats.

"What happened to me?" Lila finally asked as Riku sat down in the wooden chair across from the bed.

"Well, judging from the amount of pain that you're in right now, I'd say you're experiencing a hangover, your first, I should hope." Lila blinked at him. She'd had a hangover? That explained a lot. That tea did taste a little weird, but she'd just thought it was because of the citrus. Reality TV always made hangovers appear humorous, but the truth is it was only funny when it was happening to someone else. How could alcohol make a person feel so good and awful all at the same time? It was an evil drink!

"And hopefully, my last. I'm never drinking again..." Lila deadpanned, slowly moving onto her stomach as she dragged herself towards the edge of the bed before just deciding to give up and collapse there. "What the hell did I do last night?"

"Well, after I asked you if you wanted dessert, you said you had Sora's entire collection of t-shirts and knew them by smell before you began dancing around on the table with your top off."

"I DID WHAT!?" Lila gaped, earning a teasing smirk from him.

"Nah, just kidding," he joked as she glared hot daggers at him. "Honestly, you just talked a bunch of gibberish and passed out. You were seriously out of it last night. Are you sure that you don't remember anything?"

"I remember there being tea and buffalo wings," Lila clutched her head, as if it would help her think better, and squinted at a faint memory. "...and something about milk and boulders? What kind of gibberish did I say?"

"Something along the lines of that you could taste the universe," he explained in amusement. "Apparently, it tastes like skittles." Lila let out a frustrated moan of embarrassment.

"I thought it was just a normal ice tea..."

"Yeah, well it didn't help that you drank the stuff like it was water in a desert," Riku admitted. "That bar really needs to ask for an ID before they try to serve minors, since you don't exactly look twenty one, am I right?"

"You're not wrong... but I'm sure Tifa meant well. She probably thought I was of age and wanted me to cheer up and let loose," Lila defended, knowing Tifa wasn't a bad person but just misinformed. She did the wrong thing for the right reason. Riku clearly didn't agree.

"Yeah, frat-boy loose. You were vomiting like the king of the keg stands last night. I had to hold back your hair for the encore," he grimaced as her eyes widened in realization on how much she actually did last night.

"Oh god, you held my hair? Wait, did that mean you...?"

"Saw every disgusting detail? Yes," Riku finished, confirming her fears to be true. Lila ran a hand through her hair with a pathetic groan.

"Nooooooooooo..." she moaned, pulling the covers over her head and just wanting to die or disappear, which ever came first. "Ahhh my god, I'm so sorry. I should have never put you through that. That must've been awful."

"'S alright. You didn't know," he shrugged. "Honestly, I've dealt with worse." She gave him an incredulous look. She couldn't imagine anything else in the world that would've been worse or more mortifying for him to deal with than this. She almost asked him, but judging from the look he was giving her, she thought better than to pry into his private affairs.

"One hell of a first impression, though," Lila grumbled in defeat before noticing there was only one bed in the room. "Wait, I don't see a second bed. Where did you sleep last night?"

"I slept in the chair. No big deal," he shrugged nonchalantly.

"I made you sleep in the chair?" Lila gaped. He didn't act like it was a big deal, but it felt like a big deal to her. He could have selfishly taken the bed for himself and left her to swallow in her own misery and filth, but instead he held her hair back and let her sleep in the bed. Riku was so much nicer than she had perceived him to be in the games. Maybe she had misjudged him... At least... that was what Lila _had_ thought about him until he scoffed at her expression with his signature smirk.

"No, actually I just said that last part to make you feel guilty. Tifa set me up in an old cot she had in the back," Riku admitted, his proud smirk earning a scowl from me. "Call it my revenge for what you put me through last night."

_Never mind! I take it all back! He's a horrible, cruel person, who manipulates peoples emotions for kicks and giggles,_ Lila thought angrily before grudgingly admitting that he had every right to do so.

"Fair enough," she grumbled, thinking almost anything he'd do now would be justified, and she _still_ wouldn't be able to pay him back for all the hell she had put him through. "Just... leave me alone to get changed."

"Sure thing," he said, but not before earning a pained moan from her as he slammed the door behind him. As soon as she heard his footsteps go away, Lila tried to hoist herself up again before flopping back down in pain.

"Nope! Nope! I'm not getting up. Not yet. Try again in twenty minutes."

* * *

Leaving with a crafty look in his eyes, Riku purposely slammed the door behind him with a satisfied smile as the last piece of his revenge, grateful that he could leave last night's events buried in the dust and just push past this whole issue. Pluto whined pathetically outside in the hallway, scratching on the wooden surface of the door before Riku whistled for him to follow. Since the smell of bacon and eggs was in the air, the dog complied and trailed quickly after his heels.

"How's the patient doing this morning?" Tifa asked as Riku walked down the stairs, the bartender washing some of the dishes leftover from last night's dinner rush and happy hour.

"She's finally awake and trying to freshen up," Riku spoke in a condescending tone, his dislike for Tifa's wanton business practices evident on his face. "You know, none of this would've happened if it wasn't for you serving her all that 'tea.'"

"Uh, if I recall correctly, you guys asked _me_ what to recommend. You didn't care what I brought you as long as it was food. It's your own fault if you got something you didn't like," Tifa scoffed at him, frustrated and tired that she always had someone complain about getting drunk on her watch. It was hard running a business by yourself, since Cloud was off god knows where, and Leon and the others were in Hollow Bastion trying to rebuild. Bars were particularly a hard thing to manage, since they were the establishments that had the most unruly customers and received the most complaints.

"But I wasn't the one who gave alcohol to a minor without checking her ID," Riku argued, his voice raising a bit in anger and ferocity. "She could've gotten alcohol poisoning if I hadn't noticed the signs."

"I told her to watch it on those drinks, not to mention I already told you, it was an accident. Lighten up," Tifa rolled her eyes as she continued scrubbing hard at her dishes. "I always cut the guests off before they've had too much to drink. You think my bar would have a good reputation if I just let my customers drink themselves to death?"

Since he had nothing to defend against the claim, he just let her sit in cold silence while he thought hard about what to do next. While he handed Pluto a piece of bacon underneath the table, he wondered why he was stuck with such a rocky beginning and couldn't help thinking about what happened the rest of the night that he didn't tell Lila...

_As soon as Riku saw her start to lean too far over the side of the table, he quickly leaped to his feet and caught her._

_"Whoooo, nice catch there, cowboy!" Lila cheered, grateful he had caught her before she fell over as he tried to hold her upright and set her back down in her chair. She made this even harder by trying to poke his face. "You're so nice."_

_"No, I'm not," Riku defended, batting her hand away._

_"Yesh, you are. Don't be modduss," she waved sloppily, managing to poke his cheek before he roughly grabbed her wrist and pulled her close enough to see his hardened expression.  
_

_"Don't mistake me being nice for kindness. I'm not a good person," he glowered in a low, ice cold voice that was laced with hurt from old wounds, instantly grabbing her attention as she stared at him with a dumbstruck expression. A lot of people mistook his concern for him being nice, when really it was mostly just him not wanting to deal with more than he had to,_ _though he didn't understand why he was talking about it with her. It was pointless to argue with a drunk. But then again, this was pretty therapeutic. He could vent about stuff that he was terrified of admitting to the King, and odds are she wouldn't remember a single word of it._ _"I've done a lot of bad things... things that I'm not proud of, and there's no magic spell to change or undo the horrible things that I've done."_

_"But you're working to fix them, right? A bad person wouldn't do that." He sucked in a breathe and looked into her wonder-filled eyes and could've sworn that, just for a moment, that she was sober enough to understand everything, but he quickly discarded that thought as she started randomly singing a tuneless song about how she could taste the universe and that the stars were made of skittles._

_"You're just saying that," Riku sighed, figuring most of what she said was probably just the booze talking. Lila tried to convince him otherwise by putting on her most serious face as she attempted to roughly grab his shoulders and look him in the eyes, but ended up loosely grabbing his vest instead.  
_

_"I mean it, Riku. You're nothing like you are in that... that game thing we call life. Kingdom of my Heart. You took schmo much crap from evy'body and yeeeeew didn't give two fucks abow it. I wish I cud bee strowng liek yew... Yew were such a pain in the ass ta beet during bauss fights..." Lila slumped onto the table, her emotions crossed between depression and self-loathing. "Me? I can't even find milk in a cereal isle..."_

_Instead of questioning what the hell she was talking about, knowing that would probably get him nowhere, he told her, "That's because they don't have milk in a cereal isle. It's in the dairy isle."_

_"Seeeee? You've got it all figured out!" She flicked her wrist wildly in the air, nearly knocking over one of her glasses and hitting Riku in the face. "How am I supposed to find my family and travel to the moon?" And then her mood suddenly turned into something he hadn't seen on her before, but knew all too well. Guilt.  
_

_"Ish awl my fault... I jush know it izzz..." Lila mumbled brokenly, tears already starting to shine again in her dark brown eyes as she started mumbling unintelligible things about no more stars and pizza dinners. Not knowing if it was the sympathetic pull of understanding he had for her situation or him getting high off of the secondhand fumes of alcohol she was breathing into his face, he would never be able to explain what caused him to do what he did next._

_"I'll help you."  
_

_"Whaaaaaaat? Reeeeeaally?" she sniffled, her big doe-eyes looking up at him like he was a god of mercy._

_"Sure. Why not?"  
_

_"Wow, Riku, thanks! See!? You are a nice guy! I don't even care what awl those girls Maleficent said on all those forums, you're a reaaally nice guy." He gave her quizzical look, wondering how she even knew about Maleficent before he suddenly felt her head rest on his shoulder. The unwanted and unexpected contact made him feel very uncomfortable as he nervously tried to push her off his shoulder._

_"Hey! This isn't a pillow."_

_"So nice..." Lila smiled contently before passing out. Now Riku had a different reason to feel uncomfortable, as he held up his hand to hide the embarrassed blush growing on his face. He would have just moved her, but she looked so content and peaceful. It was the first time he had really seen her happy since they had brought out the buffalo wings, and witnessing that genuine peace brought a small smile to his face. However, that moment was soon quickly ruined by the sound of her retching onto his shoes..._

Most of the night after that was pretty horrible. After managing to get her to a trashcan to hurl her guts out into, Riku had to help Tifa drag Lila upstairs because one of them had to make sure that she had something to hurl into while the other carried her as dead-weight. Tifa, of course, apologized like crazy and offered the spare bedroom she usually had set up for her boyfriend Cloud when he crashed at her place and promised to watch over Pluto so he wouldn't disturb her, but Riku was the one who carried Lila upstairs, held her hair back when she was sick, and put her to bed because the bartender had other customers to attend to, and, when he was sure that she was empty and out like a light, he pulled out a cot from underneath the bed and slept on the other side of the room in case she needed something.

All of this wasn't him being nice, but just him being considerate. He already knew how to deal with people who had drank a little too much. However, thinking of how she had called him nice, even after everything he had said, allowed the same, soft smile to work its way back onto his face again. After all that he had been through, it made him wonder if things were going to be this interesting all the time. If that was the case, then maybe following Lila around wouldn't be so bad after all.


	4. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hangovers never entail anything good other than funny stories at dinner parties. After dealing with last night's poor decision making, Lila tries to get her bearings again and start her search for her family, and things become heated when a sore issue between two unlikely people gets in the way.

After lying there for a couple more minutes, the glass of water seemed to be doing its job as Lila managed to move towards the shower, though it was not an easy feat. She spent most of the time sitting on the floor or weakly hanging onto the shower handle for balance, but it felt nice to be clean for what felt like the first time in ages. The cold water seemed to purge all the negativity and grossness she felt and wash it away down the drain.

She started raiding the medicine cabinet for an used toothbrush and an Advil after stepping out of the shower before she just decided to organize it all together: medicines on top, first-aid on the bottom, and hygiene materials like cologne and shaving cream in the middle. While she had luck in finding the Advil, popping in two right off the bat, Lila was about to lose hope at ever having a clean mouth again before she suddenly found a small bottle of Listerine inside one of the sink drawers. She took a swig and swished it around until she was sure it bleached off the smell of last night, but not before she made sure she didn't swallow any of it, suddenly remembering that mouthwash often has alcohol in it. After swishing around some water to get any trace of alcoholic mouthwash out of her mouth for extra measure, Lila spat into the sink and placed the Listerine on the hygiene shelf where it belonged before she began sifting through the outfits left for her to choose from, trying to curb the sudden urge to straighten up the bathroom entirely.

Most of the pile was old winter coats, proving her suspicions to be correct, but she decided not to bother much with the lost-and-found box after she did a quick sniff test. She doubted any of the clothes had been washed at all since they had been left behind, but she wasn't completely out of options. She did manage to find a pair of black shorts and a white tank top from the pile of Tifa's old clothes, though Lila found the shorts a bit too small in length for her taste, and her midriff was slightly exposed from the tank top, even if the give in it was lower because it had to support Tifa's bust size after all these years. It would have to do.

Lila was also grateful in finding a pair of crimson tennis shoes, which only were slightly bigger than her feet. Even without socks, the familiar security around her feet made her feel a little more whole. She had forgotten how nice it felt to wear a pair of shoes, having taken it for granted. The bottoms of her feet were starting to ache from all the cobblestone streets, some of the dull cuts stinging from the hot shower water.

Finally being able to stand without falling or feeling nauseous, Lila tied her old Adidas jacket back around her waist to act like a makeshift skirt and hide her belly and balled up and stuffed her old clothes awkwardly into her jacket pockets before she felt a little bump get in the way. She pulled out a little black box to rearrange the space in her pockets before she realized it was the Cid Cannon Mach 5.

 _Oh yeah, I forgot that I picked this back up on the way to the bar..._ Lila thought as she turned the weapon in her hand a couple times before shoving it back inside her pockets after rearranging the space a bit. _Will have to remember to tell Cid about the "little glitch"..._

After scanning the room for a couple of seconds, Lila found a pen nearby and quickly wrote a note on her left hand about the glitch before she forgot or her mind moved onto something else, and made her way towards the first floor. She still had to move at her own pace, but she managed to slowly walk down the stairs without relying on the walls. Balance reestablished! Now all that was bothering her was her little headache. Ugh...

"Look who's finally up!" Tifa greeted cheerfully as Lila ascended down the back staircase. "You want anything to eat? I know some really good hangover cures." Lila didn't want to appear as ungrateful, but she really didn't want to think about food right now. Still, something told her that it would be much better in the long run to eat now than to not and regret it later.

"Sure. What do you have?" Lila asked as she sat down at the table next to Riku, who was distracting Pluto with pieces of bacon to keep him quiet. The former appeared to be in a mood, judging from the tired expression he held in his eyes, so she didn't really know how to talk to him.

 _I'd probably just go and say something stupid anyways..._ Lila thought in resignation. _Though, odds are, I probably already did say something like that to him last night. Speaking of which, Riku has helped me a lot with my hangover. Did I ever thank him for it?_ Before Lila could react, she was suddenly presented a small plate of eggs, a slice of toast, and a glass of water.

"Had this all ready for you, in case you were hungry. I would have made you coffee, but I wasn't sure how you drank it or if you liked it at all," Tifa smiled apologetically. "Sorry again about last night."

"'S fine. Thank you," Lila waved tiredly as she took a large sip from her water. Riku glanced at her with a furrowed brow, thinking that Tifa didn't deserve such quick forgiveness, but she was oblivious of his feelings as she bit into her savory toast, grateful that it had no butter on it. Waiting a few moments to see how her stomach reacted to the new piece of food, Lila started picking at her eggs, taking a few small bites around the edges here and there before she resigned and wolfed them down. They weren't over seasoned and they didn't have anything extra stuff in them, so she could stomach them a bit better that she had initially thought.

"So Riku," Lila managed to ask in-between bites. "What's the plan?"

"Hmm...?" He looked over at her distractedly, as if he was trying to find something to ground his focus on to stay awake.

"I mean, what are we going to do about that whole keyblade situation? Am I going to train with someone or what?" He shuffled himself so that he positioned himself to leaning back in his chair.

"Well, before we make any decisions," he said as he stretched and popped his joints like a cat who had just woken up from his nap. "I have to take you to Master Yen Sid and see if you are even capable of wielding a keyblade."

"What do you mean 'capable'? I've already summoned the-" Lila defended before she stopped with a cold realization. _No... No, I hadn't been able to summon a keyblade. All I saw was a flash of light. In this universe, that could literally mean just about anything. What would happen if I was wrong, if Riku was wrong? Would I be stuck in Traverse Town, with no way to defend myself and no clue as to where to start looking for Mom and Kurami? That is, even if they were alive..._

"That being said, it wouldn't hurt to ask him how to locate people either. Even if you're unable to wield the keyblade, maybe we can find your family," Riku finished, earning a surprised look from Lila. When did she tell him that she was looking for her family?

She was about to say something about it when she suddenly heard a familiar victory fanfare blare from Tifa's back pocket. The bartender's startled expression quickly turned into a happy one when she flipped open her phone and silenced the Final Fantasy theme.

"Hey, I was wondering when you would call. So, how's the search going, Cloud?" she asked as she stepped into the other room, though it really didn't make much of a difference, since the kitchen was the only room on this floor.

 _Cloud? As in Cloud Strife?_ Lila gaped. Honestly, she really shouldn't be surprised. Tifa and Cloud were sort of an item in _Final Fantasy VII_. It makes sense that she would have his phone number, but the thing that kept running through Lila's head, over and over, was how Tifa was able to get a phone call from him when he was probably worlds away. _That phone must have a really good data plan or a wide broadband signal. She must have Verizon Wireless or something. Wonder how someone could get a phone plan like that. It probably was crazy expensive... Wait a minute! That's it!_

"Hey Tifa, do you have a bag of uncooked rice?" Lila asked her suddenly, showing the first burst of energy all day.

"Hey Cloud, just hang on one second-" Tifa apologized before covering the speaker and whispering lowly. "It should be in the kitchen in one of the lower steel cabinets. Why? Are you planning to make _sak_ _é_ with it?"

"Nope. I just need to borrow it real quick," Lila stated before she left for the kitchen and started putting her plan into action. Puzzled on why she had just walked away to get a bag of rice, Riku followed Lila into the kitchen.

"Um, what are you doing?" he asked as she popped her phone open and set the respective parts down into the bowel.

"Drying out my phone, what's it look like?" Lila said as she poured a small pile of rice on top of it.

"Kind of looks like you're making a bowl of rice," Riku admitted, not really thinking of anything else to explain her weird action. "Why rice?"

"Uncooked rice soaks up moisture like a sponge, so if you ever water-log your phone, you can put it in rice for a couple of hours, and the phone'll be fixed." Never had Lila been more grateful to have a crummy phone that popped its own battery out on more than one occasion. Otherwise, she didn't think this trick would've worked with her leaving it like this overnight. While she was in the kitchen, the thought of rice for breakfast suddenly sounded really good right now. Oh, and some orange juice! Grabbing the carton, Lila took a bowl of rice and poured the orange juice into her empty water glass as she heard a coarse smoker's cough.

"Looks like you had fun last night." Lila turned to see none other than the foul-mouthed blacksmith himself, dangerously holding a cigarette in one hand and taking a sip from his frothy beer mug in the other. "I'm in here for my usual morning juice as well."

 _Perfect! Just the man I wanted to see!_ I cheered, thinking that fate was finally starting to work in my favor. "Hey Cid, I got a question for-"

"Oh no, not you again," Riku gaped, his dumbstruck expression quickly turning into a look of annoyance. After a couple of seconds of recognition, Cid's face mirrored Riku's.

"Son of a bitch," Cid growled as he clenched his mug handle tightly in his hand, taking a drag from his cigarette with the other. "Never thought I'd see your stupid-looking mug around here again, that's for sure."

"Believe me, it was not my intention to stay," Riku scoffed bitterly, glaring venomously at the middle-aged blacksmith.

"Whoa, hold on a sec! What's going on?" Lila asked, very confused by the situation. When had these characters met? She had probably only seen only two occasions where they happened to be on the same world at the same time, but neither had interacted with the other. In fact, Lila was pretty sure that neither of them knew the other's name, so why did it look like these two wanted to kill each other?

"You _know_ him?" Cid questioned pointing towards Riku.

"Of course I know him. I-" Lila exclaimed, almost blurting out that she had played every single _Kingdom Hearts_ game, so of course she would know him, before she did a quick save and finished with, "I met him yesterday after I left your shop. How do _you_ know him?"

"Oh god, here we go..." Riku sighed, running his hand tiredly through his hair.

"This kid, he comes out of nowhere, with a busted ship and no explanations, and tells me to just fix it," Cid explained, talking as if he had rehearsed the same speech for decades. "I try to explain to him that I would have to keep it for at least a week to work on the repairs, but he wants a rush order because he's on a mission for his friend and doesn't want to be long. I still have to explain to him that even with a rush order, I'd have to go through two all-nighters just to fix the damn thing. Eventually, I do just that and manage to fix and replace every dent and broken part, only for him to tell me that he wasn't satisfied with my work."

"I only wanted you to fix the engine, not the whole ship," Riku defended for what he felt like was the millionth time, but Cid wasn't listening and continued on with his rant.

"And he tells me that he can't afford the payment and refuses to pay for the ship's repairs because he didn't order for the ship to be fixed, just to be able to run and end up stealing it instead."

"He forgets to mention that he charged me double for the rush order that only ended up breaking down again because of his shoddy workmanship," Riku added angrily.

"Don't blame the mechanic!" Cid fired back, standing up now as he shoved a finger in Riku's direction. "You said to fix it in a rush order, and I did exactly as I was asked. You never specified what you wanted me to fix. Poor Shera. Never thought I would get her workin' again..."

"It was your stupid voice program that got me into that mess," Riku argued before quickly adding, "And stop calling my ship Shera."

"If you knew anything about yer ship, you'd realize that Shera is the name of the ship as well as the navigation system. Shera is a beautiful piece of workmanship, something that I've poured my heart and soul into making, only to be treated like garbage because some kid decided to take her out for a joyride."

"That is not true!" Riku yelled, but his eyes were saying something else. At this point, a small crowd was gathering around the two, while Lila just stood on the sidelines, awkwardly trapped in the crossfire of the heated debate. This went on back and forth for what felt like forever before she tuned in again.

"Don't you dare talk shit about Shera!" Cid yelled, now almost two feet away from Riku. "She's a beautiful woman, something you wouldn't know anything about."

"Yeah, well, it's hard to describe her as a beautiful woman when she's a _computer."_

"You wanna fight, kid?" Cid challenged as he cracked his knuckles, popping his neck to add to the intimidation factor.

"Sorry, I don't fight elderly people," Riku said coolly with that cocky, arrogant smirk of his.

"Why you piece of-!" Cid growled as he sprang up from his seat, reaching out to strangle Riku or punch him before Tifa shoved herself in-between the two piles of raging testosterone.

"Boys, this is my bar, and I will not tolerate fighting in my bar! You two can go pull each other's hair and scratch each other's eyes out to your hearts' content, but do it on your own time, not on mine. Cid, you're drunk. Either calm down or go home," Tifa ordered before glaring at Riku. "Same applies to you, Snowball, is that clear?"

Instead of answering her, Riku slowly backed down and made his way towards the door and mumbled, "Whatever. I'm out of here."

"This ain't over, kid. Not by a long shot!" Cid pointed, managing to get the last word in before Riku angrily skulked towards the exit.

"Riku!" Lila finally managed to call out, but it was too late. He was already out the door. _Probably should let him cool down for a bit,_ she thought before turning awkwardly towards Cid, who took a long swig of his beer. "Umm..."

"Oh yeah, forgot that you were still here. Sorry about that. I just can't stand folks who can't pay their bills," Cid apologized, recognizing her with a squint. "Been meaning to ask, how's the CCM5 workin' for ya?"

"Oh! Uhh... well," Lila put a hand behind her neck sheepishly. "It sort of... broke after five uses." After the harsh argument she had just heard earlier, she was expecting a loud and angry outburst similar to what she had just witnessed, but instead was greeted by understanding silence.

"Mmm hmmm yep. That sounds about right," said Cid as he crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. "Sorry, kid. I forgot to mention that the machine has a longer charge up time after it's used five times in a row."

"Oh... okay. Good to know," Lila said, a little deflated from the lack of harsh words and hot wind.

"I still appreciate that you tested it out for me," he added. "With folks shutting themselves in so much because of the heartless, it's hard to get people to test out my products anymore."

"Well, see, that's actually what I want to talk to you about, but umm..." Lila began, easing into more awkward territory. "I have a favor to ask."

"Shoot."

"Could you, maybe, pardon Riku of whatever he did? I'm sure it's not as bad as it was made out to be," she suggested cautiously, unsure how Cid would react. He was more passive now that the teenager wasn't there to argue with him, but he adopted a tired expression on his face.

"Look, kid," Cid began with an exhausted sigh, the kind that parents did to their children right as they were about to point out their naivete. "Riku owes me a lot of money that he never paid back. Unless you've got 10,000 munny on ya, which I doubt you're carrying in that tank top and shorts of yours, there's nothing I can do."

"There has to be something..." Lila said mostly to herself, trying to run over other options before her head kept replaying the words 'beta tester.' "What if I paid it off by testing out some more products for you, maybe help around the shop once-a-week? Surely, you would need someone to work part-time."

Cid furrowed his brow in deep thought, considering the options. Unsure if he was biting on the issue, unable to read his expression, Lila blurted out, "Also, if I could get him to apologize for the whole thing, would you forgive him?" The air around him instantly shifted as he leaned forwards in his chair, intrigued by the proposition.

"Well, I'd have to hear it from the kid, but if you can get him to say that he's sorry, then I'll let the whole situation slide," he shrugged, causing a glimmer of hope to shine in her eyes.

"Thank you! I'll be right back to get him. You won't regret it," Lila bowed before nudging Pluto, who had just finished his breakfast. "Come on, Pluto. Let's go get Riku."

* * *

Riku was stewing outside by an alleyway in the third district, leaning up against the stone arch entrance adjacent from the bar, his arms crossed adamantly across his chest. He had his eyes closed as he tried to maintain his breathing, the constant night air being a good deterrent to help cool off his emotions. He hated this town. It did nothing but drudge up foul memories and add to his already sour mood.

He wondered how long all of this quiet would last before he picked up a familiar scent, and soon it wasn't long before Lila found him sulking. One thing he noticed after meeting her was that, while she still had faint traces of alcohol and vomit in her breathe, it didn't change her natural scent, which reminded him of lavender and laundry detergent.

"There you are. We've been looking all over for you," Lila exclaimed, quickly walking over towards him. "Looks like Pluto's got your scent down pat."

"Arf!" Pluto barked happily before spinning around.

"Why are you out here? It's dangerous to be out here with no protection," Riku frowned, not wanting a repeat of last night. God, he hoped she wouldn't start crying again.

"Well, my only protection kind of left me behind in a bar," Lila shrugged comically. "Which, in retrospect, isn't very safe either."

 _Fair enough..._ Riku thought admittedly towards himself, still keeping silent.

"Soooo are you going to explain to me what that was about back there?" Lila finally asked, jabbing her thumb over her shoulder towards the bar. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I have plenty of people that I don't like associating with, but I doubt all that bickering with Cid was necessary."

"I was just messing around with him," Riku shrugged carelessly. "I didn't mean nothing by it."

"Well, that sure didn't sound like nothing. Why are you so moody this morning?"

"I just don't like the guy. He reminds me of some very bad people," Riku sighed in aggravation, though it came off more as exhausted. She just didn't get it. She couldn't possibly understand what he was going through. Any answer he gave would make her give him the same condescending look everyone gave him.

"I'm not saying that you have to justify yourself, or explain to me why you did what you did. But if you just apologize and take responsibility for it, I know things can be better between you two. You can't avoid Traverse Town forever."

"Wanna bet?" he offered with a raised eyebrow. Lila took a deep breathe and sighed, a familiar weariness appearing in her eyes.

"Look, Riku, I'm tired. I'm hungover and emotionally drained from the past twenty four hours. Would it kill you to just suck it up for once and pretend that you care enough to apologize?"

"It might," Riku mumbled, thinking she didn't pick up his joking tone before he reassured her with a humorless smile. He held her fiery gaze for what felt like hours, noticing that she appeared almost as stubborn as he was, before he relented with a sigh. "I was on a mission for a friend of mine... It was the first time I was allowed to drive one of the Gummi ships, and I was overzealous about the whole ordeal and got careless. I ran into a large swarm of heartless battalions while going through a wormhole and ended up totaling the whole ship. I barely able to make to Traverse Town before I noticed how extensive the damage was."

Lila gaped slightly at him as he confessed, waves of guilt and shame running over him as he felt his heart constrict tightly inside his chest. He had never told anyone about what happened, not even the King. Maybe that was why he was feeling this way.

_That's what you get for lying. It rots you to the core. You deserve to feel like this..._

"I was so ashamed at what I'd done... I wanted to cover it up or, at least, take responsibility for the damages," Riku explained with bitter remorse, his hand tightly grasping his chest to swallow the ache building inside. "But then Cid repaired the whole ship down to the last scratch, and I didn't have the funds for it. I couldn't ask for more money from my friend because then he'd know what I'd done, and I would never be allowed to drive a Gummi ship again, so I just took the ship and ran." They stood their in silence for a couple seconds before Lila finally spoke up.

"This friend of yours... is he a good person?" she asked. Riku let out a slight chuckle, a small, warm smile spreading across his face.

"One of the best..."

"Then I'm sure he would have forgiven you if you had explained. You shouldn't assume something's bad without finding out first, otherwise you'll just have to deal with the constant guilt of wondering what could've been. Though, I will admit, taking it out on Cid was not the wisest decision."

"I guess I was more angry at myself than Cid," Riku finally confessed. "He was right. I wasn't very specific, and he was only doing his job..."

"See? That wasn't so bad. Why don't you tell Cid what you told me? I'm sure he'd forgive you if you explained to him what happened." Riku shook his head.

"It's not that easy. People aren't as forgiving as you'd think."

"Sure they are. Quit being so hard on yourself. It can't be good for your digestion," Lila scolded, earning a weird look from Riku before she reached out and grabbed his wrist.

"Come on. Let's go and get this over with," she rolled her eyes, tugging him awkwardly towards the direction she came. "I left some things at the bar, and I have to ask Cid for a favor anyways, so it would be nice if you didn't try and piss off the only person who can help me."

"No promises," Riku added in hesitation, unsure how the blacksmith would react to him when they returned as Lila pulled him by the wrist, as if to make sure he wouldn't suddenly run off again.

He could've walked on his own without having to be led around like mother dragging along a toddler, but he was so amused by seeing her try to pull him around -despite that he was heavier than she was, her tiny hand barely able to fit around his wrist- that he just let her, though there were moments were he decided to mess with her and dig his heels in to make it harder for her to pull him around.

* * *

By some miracle, Lila had managed to drag Riku back to 7th Heaven, a place he couldn't seem to get away from quick enough. For some reason, they didn't encounter any Heartless on the way back, which lightened the situation a bit. After some prodding, Riku finally made out an apology towards Cid. The mechanic was so awestruck that he was completely willing to listen to her request, no matter how crazy it was, as Lila explained her plan.

"You want me to do what now?" Cid squinted, looking at her with latent curiosity as she held out her phone.

"I want you to make me a charger for my phone and modify it so I can get calls anywhere," Lila repeated as Cid took the phone from her hand and started examining it.

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Because my mom carries her phone with her everywhere. If I can somehow reach her, I'll be able to find out where she is instead of blindly looking around for her and my little sister." He considered the idea, thinking it was a sound plan, but frowned at the foreign technology, noticing that some of the chips would have to be reprogrammed or modified just to get it working.

"Hmmm... that's a tall order," he observed before he shook his head and set the phone out on the table. "I don't know what kind of shop you think I run, little missy, but I only make and sell weapons and machine parts. Why don't you just go buy yourself a new phone and call her from that one?"

"I would, but I don't know my mom's phone number by heart because I have everybody on speed dial or in my contacts, and my battery's dead, so I couldn't look even if I tried. Plus, I like my old phone. It hasn't failed me once."

"Until now," Cid added before Riku huffed impatiently.

"Look, can you do it or not?" he asked gruffly.

"Riku!" Lila hissed lowly as she slightly elbowed him in the side, her sharp glare telling him to behave.

"I can, but it's kind of expensive," said the mechanic.

"How much?" Riku asked.

"I really don't think you'll be able to afford it," Cid squinted, still a little suspicious on how good Riku's word was.

"Try me," Riku asked again with an eye roll.

"A custom job is around 5000 munny." Riku cringed. Yep. Definitely wouldn't be able to afford it. He only had 2300 on him, and that was after he'd looted some of the Heartless on the way over here.

"But I thought since you're so good with tech, that you would be able to help me out," Lila remarked, her hope-filled expression quickly turning into sour disappointment. "And you said that if I needed help, I could come to you."

"That's different, kid. When I said you could come to me for help, I meant that I could point you to a shelter or give you a discount on weapons, not do a freebee job for a cellphone. This is still a business, sweetheart. I have to make a profit in order to stay afloat." Lila frowned, anxiously pacing back and forth in frustration. What was she going to do? She needed this job done, but it wasn't even guaranteed.

"If I can get you the money, will you try and upgrade my phone?" She finally asked before carefully holding out her iPod. "And... maybe make a charger for this little guy too?"

"I don't know... Trust is hard thing to earn," Cid said, looking back at Riku. Apologies were struck, but the trust between the two had been severely damaged. It would be a long while before Riku could trust him again.

"If you don't trust his word, then you can trust mine," Lila promised adamantly, placing her hand on the bar table. "I'll be working for you, so it's not like you can't hold me to it." The air felt almost electric as she anxiously anticipated Cid's response, unable to read before he took a long swig of his drink.

"Oh, what the hell? You caught me in a good mood," Cid let out gruffly as he set down his large mug in satisfaction as the warm feeling of alcohol overtook him. "If you can get me the money, I'll not only make you a new phone charger, I'll even throw in one for your little music maker for free."

"Oh my gosh, Cid, thank you! Thank you so much!" Lila cheered excitedly, bouncing a little in place before she handed over her iPod, pausing only for a second as the weight of handing over her most highly coveted item finally hit her.

"Cid... Please do take care of them. They're all I have..." she pleaded with a somber and wistful tone in her voice as her eyes turned glassy.

"I'll do the best I can to make sure they come back to ya in the way ya left them now," Cid nodded in understanding.

"Ready to go?" Riku asked as he nudged the door open.

"Yeah," Lila nodded. After saying 'thank you' to Tifa and waving their goodbyes, Riku, Pluto, and Lila finally headed towards the first district's world gates.

"Hey Lila, why'd you want him to fix your other gadget? What does it even do?" Riku questioned as they entered the first district, quickly finishing off a few Heartless that appeared on the way there.

"It plays music. Like a portable CD player or a Walkman radio, with all of your favorite songs on it."

"Cool, but that doesn't really answer my question," he frowned. "I can understand why you'd want the phone charger so badly, but why for that little box?"

"Because my mom gave it to me. It's one of the few things I have left from her..." Lila whispered, thinking back to the day she first got her iPod.

_"Lila, I have a surprise for you," her mother Yukino said as she handed her a little box._

_"What is it?" Lila asked excitedly, wondering why she was receiving a present when it wasn't even her birthday._

_"It's an iPod. It's a device that you listen to music with. Kind of like a portable CD player or a Walkman radio with all your favorite songs on it without having to change the disc or station."_

_"Cool! Thanks, Mom!" Lila thanked her exuberantly, wanting to go take off with it as soon as she got it before her mother caught her arm._

_"Hold on, now! I'm not done. I want you to be_ very careful _with it. It's for therapy, so make sure to bring it to Mrs. Waite's and listen to the stuff I put on it."_

_"Okay, but... What if I lose it?" Lila asked, the guilt of having lost or ruining almost everything else that she had ever needed for her therapy flooding onto her face._

_"That's the best part about it! It can clip onto anything, like your shirt, so you never have to worry about losing it, as long as you remember to unclip it. Try and make a space for it on your desk so you'll remember to put it there, okay?"_

_"Okay, Mommy!" she cheered before zooming off with it. Yukino already knew that she wouldn't need instructions on how to make it work. Technology was one of the few things that always kept her occupied. She smiled as Lila started scrolling over the family's shared iTunes and wanting to get every song she could, wondering if she would regret the decision later in the long run now that her daughter had something else that would keep her from paying attention._

Thinking back on that memory, Lila looked back towards the bar as she unconsciously rubbed her thumb over the charm on her black choker. She often did that for luck when she was nervous or stressed out. It was a great way of grounding herself down from spacing out so much.

"Guess that wasn't such a bad thing to apologize for," Riku said as he looked up towards the sky. She looked back at him, finally managing to find the courage to say it.

"Hey Riku?"

"Yeah?"

"...Thanks," Lila smiled. "You know, for everything." He stopped in his tracks, trying to piece the meaning behind what she had said before he put his hands inside his pockets and shrugged.

"No problem. Happy to help."

"Don't lie," Lila scoffed as she crossed her arms, catching him in a lie as he shrugged again.

"Just seemed like the right thing to say."

"You weren't wrong in thinking that," she acknowledged. "Maybe if you always tried to do the right thing, you'd be less moody."

"Moody?" he questioned, his eyebrows going up.

"Yeah, or would you've preferred 'snowball'?" Lila snickered as Riku frowned at the nickname.

"Oh god, you're not going to start calling me that, are you?" he moaned, running his hand over his face.

"Maaaaybe. Don't be such a stick-in-the-mud, Riku. Learn to have a little fun. You're kind of a wet-blanket to hang around when you go all dark like that. I like it much better when you smile." She kept on walking, not noticing that Riku had stopped again. It wasn't until she was in front of the gates that Lila noticed he wasn't following her anymore.

"You coming, Snowball?" she asked, smiling a bit at the taste of the strange, new nickname. He would never be able to live this one down.

"...Yeah," Riku nodded, shaking off a slight warm twinge in his chest before he caught up with her, "And stop calling me Snowball."

"No promises," Lila grinned mischievously as he helped her push the heavy gates open, opening up her world to a brand new adventure.


	5. Boredom and Baseball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not all parts of the journey are exciting and adventurous. Some of it has to be transitions, world building, and character development. Lila is stuck in the Gummi ship while Riku drives, and is only left with a tennis ball and Pluto for company. Let the chaos and hilarity ensue!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on I will be posting background music soundtracks to immerse you more in the fiction, and eventually will start quoting songs from Lila's playlist (as soon as she gets her iPod back from Cid...). By the way, LOL, I just remembered that Riku's voice actor, David Gallagher, was on the show "7th Heaven," and in this story, Riku hates the bar 7th Heaven. I love how unintentional this was! Anyways, review, follow and favorite.

**Background Soundtracks  
** **"Define Dancing" by Thomas Newman from Disney's WALL-E.**

"Wow! This is so cool!" Lila exclaimed excitedly as she bounced in her seat after they had taken off, looking around the Gummi ship Shera with fervent curiosity. The glowing control panel immediately caught her eye as she leaned forward to examine the controls. "Oooh, what do all these buttons do?"

"Don't-!" Riku yelled as he anxiously swiped her hand away from the control panel, but he seemed to regret being so forceful after seeing her shocked and hurt expression. "Sorry, just... please don't touch anything. It's really fragile and complex, and I don't want you messing around and making us crash."

"Oh... right. Sorry! Got a bit carried away," Lila apologized sheepishly, trying to turn her attention towards other things in the ship, which surprising extended further beyond the three seats in the control room the video-games had displayed. The back of the ship was very curvilinear around the walls and ceilings, colored with shades of grey and off-white, while the floor was designed like a sunken living room and was split off into smaller, makeshift spaces that were separated by screens and grooves in the walls like a studio apartment in order to give you the illusion that it wasn't just one big room.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it'd be..." she admitted as she spun around in her chair, astonished by the interior detail and that fact that she was not greeted by a set of simple, texture-less, low-count polygons slapped together like toy blocks.

"Well, it's made for more long distance journeys, so it comes with beds and supplies," Riku explained, keeping his eyes on the hologram touch screen controls he activated effortlessly like he was Tony Stark before swiping an arrow with his finger.

 **"AUTOPILOT ACTIVATED. YOU ARE NOW FREE TO MOVE ABOUT THE CABIN,"** Shera's automated voice system announced, which strangely sounded like Sigourney Weaver.

"Uhh, should you be leaving the ship unmanned?" Lila asked, anxious that Riku left the controls untouched.

"It's fine. This route's pretty safe, and the auto-flight system knows what its doing," Riku waved passively as he unbuckled his seat belt and stood up from his chair in order to give her the grand tour. Lila crouched down in the narrow hallway in order not to bump into the walls that were covered in switches and flashing buttons, suddenly reminded of the tiny space between economy and the cockpit in an airplane that the flight attendants worked in, as it opened up into the wider section.

Not only did the ship have a closed off kitchen, but the walls around the ship were covered with cabinets and fold out compartments similar to a deluxe camper or trailer would, equipped with every sort of gadget you could imagine, from tables to TV monitors. It even had an observation deck at the very back of the ship with a clear overhead dome and a smaller set of controls similar to the main system, but much less complex.

"The spare bunk on the right is yours, if you want," Riku pointed towards the right-hand corner, showing her how to slide the door open to the closed off pod and access all the amenities. "The kitchen is automated and has a lot of TV dinners and canned goods, so if you're hungry, you can just put something in the microwave. It might be a while, so sit tight and please don't touch anything that looks like you shouldn't be messing around with it." Unsure exactly how long she could keep herself from being bored, Lila nodded anyways to keep from having to drudge out an uncomfortable conversation.

"How long is awhile?" she asked curiously.

"Probably about an hour or two?" Riku shrugged. "It might be longer if we come across any heartless."

"Great." Lila tried to smile, but she felt some sarcasm slip out as she flopped down in one of the beanbag chairs in the living space. She couldn't really call it a living room because it wasn't big enough to be one, but it had a wooden coffee table and a small pile of old blankets used as a bed for Pluto, who was currently curled up in it. Sinking down into her seat, Lila let her thoughts wander as she let the beanbag envelope around me like a cocoon.

Unfortunately for her, today appeared to be one of those days that she couldn't stay zoned out for long. The ride itself had been kind of... awkward. Despite that they had been driving for what felt like thirty minutes, neither Riku nor Lila had spoken a word since they had left Traverse Town. Normally, she could live without not talking to people, but she could _not_ live with dead silence. The hum of the ship was even too silent to count as noise. Normally, Lila relied on her music to help fill the empty void as well as open her mind, ground her focus, and overall, just provide entertainment for hours, but since she currently didn't have her music, Lila either had to deal with the silence or find something else to do. She could've decided to socialize with Riku like a normal person, but it was kind of hard to talk to someone casually, especially with the circumstances she was dealing with.

Lila may have played every single _Kingdom Hearts_ game, but in reality, she didn't know all that much about Riku, and the stuff that she did know, she shouldn't have. If she tried to initiate a conversation and accidentally slip up and reveal anything about knowing Riku and his past, it might have... unsightly repercussions. Aside from possibly altering the future, Lila didn't think a lot of people would take being a fictional character all that well, especially if said someone would find out that he turned to darkness all because someone named Tetsuya Nomura made it happen. Even if she did manage to slip once, the "I Know Sora" excuse could only go so far, so unless it was an emergency, Lila decided to keep her mouth shut.

"Are we there yet?" she moaned, rolling over in the beanbag. Complaining about time was definitely an emergency... sort of.

"For the fifth time, _no,_ we're not there yet," Riku sighed irritably before he set the ship on its auto-flight system and pulled out a tennis ball before placing it in her palm. "Here! Something to keep you busy."

Lila gave him a stupefied look. "A ball? You're giving me... a ball?"

"It's not for throwing, if that's what you're asking. It's for practice. Since it's probably likely you'll start training soon, I want you to squeeze this tennis ball over and over." Lila stared dumbly at the ball and then back at him.

 _"...Why?"_ she asked, for lack of a better question.

"It helps your muscles develop. Believe me, wielding any kind of weapon is going to physically demanding at first, but this exercise makes it a little easier." Not sure exactly what he meant by that, she decided not to question it. "I'm going to be doing some maintenance, so don't disturb me for the next hour unless we're under attack," he said, moving to sit back down in his chair before abruptly shutting the cabin door, leaving Lila all alone with her boredom. She started squishing the tennis ball like he asked, though it wasn't long before that got old real quick. Her hand was starting to become sore, trying to find new ways of imprinting her hand into its fuzzy flesh. She was pretty sure by this point the ball was meshing _her_ instead of the other way around.

"Ugh... why is he making me do this? How is a tennis ball supposed to help me wield a keyblade?" Lila asked to no one in particular as she traced the long white loops on the tennis ball with her fingernail before she noticed Pluto had not moved from his spot earlier. His eyes were set eagerly on the ball.

"You want this?" she asked him as she lifted the ball in the air. Pluto's eyes followed it before he quickly stood up on all fours.

"You want the ball, boy? _Doo joo want da bawl?"_ she said in a baby-voice, shaking the tennis ball left and right. "Go get it!" she gave the ball a gentle toss, but the ball's elasticity made it bounce higher than she wanted and caused it to noisily tap both sides of the room. She winced at all the loud crashes, thinking Riku would've come outside of the cabin any minute steamed, but nothing happened. Pluto skittered after the ball, ignorant of her worries, trying to place where it would land before he launched himself at the ball in midair and brought it back to her, but not before playing a little bit of tug of war with it.

"Drop it, Pluto. Drop it," Lila ordered, finally managing to get the slimy ball out of his mouth and mumbling a "good boy." She kept doing the same routine, over and over, occasionally becoming nervous any time the ball would loudly knock on the cabin door to the cockpit, but nothing ever happened. It was a little while after they had been playing fetch that Lila began to relax and decided to unleash her ultimate move.

"Okay, Pluto, are you ready for my finishing combo attack?" Lila challenged the pup with a deep, sports-announcer voice.

The dog's pants sounded like eager "yeahs" as he excitedly bounced around with his tail wagging in the air like a propeller.

"Lila 'Petal Pusher' Hoshiyama steps up on the pitcher's mount with very solid footing. The catcher's giving her the sign, it looks like a good pitch aaaaaand-" Lila announced as she mock spun her arm around like major league players did. "-it's a curve ball, folks! UNBELIEVABLE! And the crowd goes wild!" She made fake applause noises as she launched the ball. Unfortunately, Lila had misjudged the distance and accidentally launched the ball with an actual pitcher's swing from sheer force of habit, sending the ball flying wildly off the side walls like a loose bolt in a hot furnace. Matters were only made worse when she heard the deafening, mechanical lurch of a cabin door.

"What the heck is going on back here?" Riku yawned with a squint, deciding to find out what all the noise was about before a green felt ball shot past him and bounced all around the cockpit. They both watched anxiously as the ball ricocheted off the walls, barely missing them and various controls with important buttons before it finally aimed itself for the steering wheel. Right before it hit, Riku managed to pluck the ball out of the air with blinding speed. He turned towards Lila and gave her one of his better death glares. She met his piercing gaze with a nervous grin and anxiety-ridden eyes.

"That's enough practice for now..." Riku glowered in an oddly calm and cold voice, taking the ball with him and returning to his captain quarters, only this time, he was staying vigilant.

"Well, it's your fault for leaving me with nothing to do..." Lila grumbled under her breathe, flopping back down on the beanbag chair, which now had a decent impression of her butt. "Why do you even _have_ a tennis ball?" Riku rotated the ball absentmindedly in his hand before placing it a side compartment.

"...Because when Pluto sneaks on-board, I sometimes like to play fetch with him to pass the time," he finally answered. Lila scoffed at the injustice of it all.

"Wha-? That's so unfair! How come it's such a catastrophe for _me_ to play fetch with him, but when _you_ do it-"

" _I_ didn't try to break the ship in the process," Riku argued, sharply turning to glare at her again. This action caused Lila to instantly clam up and press her lips together. He let out a resigned sigh. "Just... go and do something else for a while, okay?"

"Fine..." she muttered dejectedly before curling up in her beanbag chair again. She pulled her knees up against her chest. Was she ever going to be able to relate to this guy?

Instead of being excited about being on a Gummi ship and flying off to a new world, Lila felt like she was a child that was stuck in the corner for a time-out. The novelty of the ship had slowly started to wear off, and while she was still in a sullen mood, her eyes couldn't find anything better to do than to figure out how she could re-stack the bookshelf on the back wall. While she rummaged through the covers, currently debating the options of arranging it alphabetically, by color, or by author, her eyes glimpsed over the foreign text.

For the most part, it was made up of logbooks and crammed bits of paper shoved in-between the binders. After looking over the owner's manual twice, Lila managed to salvage a worn paperback haphazardly pushed to the back of the shelf. It had a slightly wrinkled cover of a girl with long black hair and a teenage boy with cat ears holding up a sail with a dark skinned boy with a long ponytail. The book had either been greatly loved on over the years, or severely abused and forgotten.

" _Cast Off,_ huh?" she read aloud the glimmering, popped-out gold title before turning it over. Looked like an interesting read. Wanting to give Riku some space, Lila dragged her beanbag to the back of the ship and settled down underneath the glass dome. The area was a bit noisier than the front of the ship because it was closer to the engines, but it was bearable thanks to the skylight's sound-proof glass. The noise helped block everything out and filled the silence, not to mention the view of the sky was awe-inspiring. After finding the first shred of peace only seconds after starting her book, Lila decided that it was her most favorite room inside the Gummi ship.

Pulling her eyes from the view, she flicked her thumb over the bent pages, straightening out a few every now and then. Books for her were either incredibly daunting to read or consumed her every waking thought. Gratefully, it was the latter for her today as she found myself enamored by an exciting world of adventure and seafaring within the span of a few chapters. The pull was too great and was only interrupted by a sound of electric whirring she heard over the roar of the engines moments later.

"I've been looking everywhere for that." Lila looked up and noticed Riku stood in the doorway leaning casually against the door-frame with his hand, jarring Lila out of her most current thought of the possibility of whether someone would get scratched up or frostbitten by being thrown from a fast moving ship onto a sheet of ice.

"It's yours?" she asked, glancing back at the paperback before she noticed the back of the title page had the words "From the Library of Riku Kurahara" on the front in ink. _His last name is Kurahara? Wait- he actually_ has _a last name?!_

"Yeah, it's the second book of the Nautilus Anthology series, one of my favorites. The series about this group of kids that build a raft and set sail to travel around the world to make their fortune. They encounter all these great adventures, like running into mythical monsters and finding lost treasures." Riku explained excitedly, showing the most energy he had the entire time Lila had known him. The sudden gap moe moment felt a bit out of character, but at the same time filled Lila with a feeling of mutual understanding. It was nice to see that Riku could generate interest in something other than maintaining a cool facade. He was a book reader. Who knew?

"Wow, that sounds really cool." And vaguely familiar.

"What part are you at?" he inquired as he leaned over at the book in her lap.

"Umm, let's see..." Lila dumbly looked down, noting she was on the fifth chapter of the book as she quickly tried to place the sentence she'd left off. She felt a wave of dumb ignorance wash over her, like she didn't know what she was reading before he came in, kind of like how you have to look down at your shirt when someone said they liked your shirt, but you didn't remember what you put on that morning. "They're about to sail across this threshold that's entirely made of ice in order to escape this giant eagle."

"Ah man, that part's great!" Riku began before he cut himself off. "...But, we should probably get going. You've got to find your folks, right?"

"Yeah... hold on! Are we there?"

"Yep." Riku nodded, before muttering, _"only took you six times in asking,"_ under his breathe before declaring that they were finally here.

"Awww, but I was right at the good part," Lila whined as she leaned her head back in irritation.

"As much I hate to break you from your entertainment that's managed to keep you quiet for so long," Riku joked, "we're here. Might as well stop now, since the part with the Roc goes on for about four more chapters before the plot progresses any further and-"

"Alright, shhhh! I get it! I get it! Just please, no spoilers, okay?" Lila shushed him, waving her arms wildly in the air to get him to stop talking. She dog-eared her page and set it on the desk before she followed Riku towards the door of the ship.

"By the way..." he asked, pausing briefly at the door.

"What?" Lila turned towards him, tilting her head curiously.

"...Petal Pusher?" he inquired with a slight grin.

"Oh for the love of- the ONE thing you actually hear, and it's my old baseball nickname!?" she exclaimed vehemently with a blush as Riku held back a small chuckle, stepping out into the blinding sunset.


	6. A Rocky Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Riku and Lila briefly find common ground, their dynamic for fighting and decision-making is a bit shaky, to say the least, especially when they are two socially awkward teenagers that understand each other about as much as a whale knows how to skateboard. Men are from Mars, women are from Venus!

**Background Soundtracks  
** **Lazy Afternoons by Project Destati**   
**Sinister Sundown by Project Destati**   
**Impact from Red Data Girl OST**

After he had locked up the ship, Riku groaned as he stretched out his arms and leaned back until he heard a satisfying pop in his spine. Flying the Gummi ship for long periods of time really made his body stiff. He was still exhausted from last night's little incident with the "tea," not getting a full eight hours of sleep like he wanted. It wasn't like it was anything new for him. It was about once in a blue moon that he got a good night's sleep, but it didn't make him feel any less animosity towards the bartender for being the cause of it.

"Where are we?" Lila asked as she peered around, unable to find anything familiar. It was then that Riku noticed they had landed inside a stone tunnel. Sunlight slipped through what appeared to be airway vents above, illuminating the otherwise dark tunnels.

"Looks like we landed inside an underground subway track," Riku squinted up towards the rafters that leaked light through the cracks of the subway's air vents, shining brightly into his eyes. "I think 'Shera' said this place was called 'Twilight Town.'"

"Twilight Town, huh?" Lila mused with a puzzled look on her face, her brow furrowing in deep thought. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't make any motion to voice what was on her mind. Pluto trotted next to her, reminding Riku that he had forgotten to make sure that Pluto didn't sneak out of the ship. All that book talk with Lila had distracted him from double checking.

"Oh no, you don't. _Y_ _ou're_ going back to the ship," Riku reached out for Pluto just as the dog ran away from his hand, wagging his tail, thinking that it was all some silly game. Riku frowned as he made multiple attempts to grab the dog's collar, Pluto just managing to stay an arm's length away. Fed up with playing keep-away, Riku finally managed to successfully grab the back of Pluto's green collar. Judging from the forceful grip he felt on his collar, Pluto let out a small whine of defeat, sensing that the game was over.

"Aww, come on, Riku. Is it really that big a deal that he stays?" Lila frowned, thinking that Pluto's whimper was from Riku holding his collar too tightly.

"Yes," Riku replied almost immediately. "He could wander off again, and I still don't have a leash for him yet."

"Well, he found me and lead me to you when he wandered off last time. Maybe he knows something you don't? Like how animals can sense natural disasters before humans do. Maybe he can sense something," Lila pointed out before adding a forethought, "I promise I'll make sure he doesn't wander off, okay?"

His brow furrowed as he went silent, letting the words sink in. She did have a point. Anytime Pluto wandered off, it wasn't to just go and do something senseless like sniffing a lamppost like most dogs. He always seemed to have some sort of mission or purpose. Now that he thought about it, it was possible that Pluto didn't sneak on-board the Gummi ship, but rather was put there by the King himself to watch over him and help him stay on the right path. He knew his friend wasn't above helping out a friend in need with subtlety, but then again he could be looking way too much into this.

Before Riku could answer her, Pluto let out a sharp bark, jarring him out of his thoughts and making him accidentally let go of his collar. Instead of panting happily like he usually did, Pluto was now crouching low to the ground, his hair standing on end as if he sensed something evil, letting out a low, menacing growl from the back of his throat. It wasn't until moments later that Riku picked up the scent of darkness in the area as a group of heartless suddenly appeared inside the crammed underground tunnel.

"Stay behind me," Riku ordered as he protectively stood in front of Lila, summoned his demonic looking sword and raising it above his head as the heartless twitched around in anticipation. As soon as one skittered in his direction, he took off in a flash and slashed it and two others that got in the way with the edge of his sword, the enemies instantly turning into dust before he charged through it and attacked the others, one of them being a massive black cloud with eyes and red teeth. More annoying than difficult, a Possessor had the ability to drain one's strength and take new forms through possession, so he began to slash at it with all he had.

"Wait, it's not a Possessor! It's a Massive Possessor! If you kill it, it will split off and-" Lila shouted before the Heartless split off into multiple shadow balls the disappeared through the walls. "...Never mind."

Pureblood Shadows were the easiest Heartless to destroy, so he wasn't expecting there to be much retaliation. However, as soon as he let his guard down, a group of Emblem Heartless made up of a Scarlett Tango, a cluster of Soldiers, and two Yellow Operas appeared.

"More to join the party?" Riku challenged with a confident smirk, blocking a strike from one of the Soldiers before he felt a surge of electricity rain down from above and stun him. It didn't hurt all that much, but it did surprise him and slow him down a bit, making him unable to stop the Soldiers from surrounding him. He let his energy gradually build against their slashes, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, before he unleashed his built up energy into an incredibly fast and powerful slash that eliminated two of the soldiers and knocked the other three back with one swipe. He stabbed one of the stunned ones in the chest before flinging it at one of the floating heartless that began to creep towards Lila.

"Your fight is with me," he smirked confidently before he leaped and struck down one of the Yellow Operas, knocking it into its red counterpart. While he was occupied by the spell-casting heartless, a small grove of Dire Plants quickly grew out of the ground and began spewing flaming seeds that pelted into Riku's sides. Riku let out an angry hiss, but couldn't do anything while they attacked so far away.

"Try and block their seeds. It'll shoot back at them and weaken them," Lila advised, kicking one the Soldiers in the head to keep it from getting back up as Pluto bit down and dragged another Soldier by the leg.

"Stay out of this," Riku snarled at Lila, distracted momentarily before he was blasted from behind by a fire spell sent from the Scarlett Tango. Incredibly irritated, he spun back around and threw his sword at the Tango before pinning it to the wall to finish it off. He didn't need anyone. He could do this all by himself.

Lila bit her lip, not sharing his sentiment, looking around frantically for anything to fight with before her eyes locked onto a large tree branch. She gave it a blank look before she sighed and grumbled, "oh, what the hell," and quickly grabbed the stick. She lined up in front of the Dire Plants and took a defensive batting stance to help guard Riku. Focusing on the flames of the seeds, she quickly predicted which direction the seeds were going to be tossed and accurately whacked them back into the Heartless' faces, one by one.

"Home-run!" Lila cheered before smugly looking back at Riku. "See? I told you so."

"Idiot! Stay back!" Riku warned before he was blindsided by another electric attack.

"Don't call me an idiot-" she fired back before she gasped at the sudden slash of claw marks marring her back. She had forgotten about the Soldiers. She looked over her shoulder, her tank top now having three long slashes tearing up towards her neck.

"Awww, damn it! I just got this shirt," Lila scowled trying to avoid harm before the Heartless knocked away her stick and stomped it in two. His comrades flailed towards Lila to surround her and Pluto. She nervously backed away and held out her right hand, trying to summon her keyblade with no success, when a bright light suddenly began to shine from Pluto's collar.

Pluto let out an excited series of barks and yips as he charged towards the Soldiers and pounced on them, defeating one after the other, before leaping up and grabbing onto one of the Dire Plants, pulling it out of the dirt like a dog digging up the family garden before shaking it back and forth like a chew toy. Using this as a distraction, Riku struck down the remaining Heartless before they had fired another attack towards him or Lila. After being completely sure the area was clear, Riku lowered his sword and looked back at Lila, who had seemed just as surprised as he was. Finally, she let out a scoff and crossed her arms.

"Okay, now you _have to_ keep him here," Lila leaned down to pet him and smooshed Pluto's face next to hers. "Besides, how can you say 'no' to this face?" Her expression matched Pluto's puppy dog eyes, sticking out her bottom lip for effect. Riku rolled his eyes and relented with a sigh.

"Fine, but I'm still going to look into getting him a leash." Pluto decided to thank him by jumping onto him and give him a big, slobbery kiss before he was quickly pushed off and ran back to Lila, leaving Riku with a disheveled appearance. Lila let out a short chortle at his dog drool hairstyle before she caught herself. Riku glared at her before fixing his hair.

"Let's just focus on finding Master Yen Sid," he grumbled after wiping the drool off his face with one of his black sweatbands and popped open a potion.

"Who's a good boy? Who's a good Heartless killer? You are! YOU ARE! Yes, you are!" Lila cooed, messing around with Pluto, who was now rolling around getting his belly scratched.

* * *

After dealing with a couple more Heartless, they managed to find a way out of the tunnels, not that Riku would let her help. Ever since Lila had been slashed by the Soldier, Riku now, more than ever, wanted to keep her out of the fight. She kept trying to tell him that she was fine, that the Soldier Heartless didn't even draw blood, but he was adamant on keeping her out of trouble. Never mind the fact that her advice actually worked. He always seemed to forget that part of the fight, but whatever!

Still steaming from having to deal with Riku's macho act, Lila decided to take in the scenery, since Riku wasn't much for conversation. Earlier he had explained something about finding the train station, but she was only picking up bits and pieces of what he said because she was still mad and a bit distracted by everything going on around her. This world was so warm, so well designed, so... big. Much bigger than in the games. She almost couldn't believe how huge the place was when you put it to actual scale. It felt almost like when she walked through downtown New Haven, only with less trees.

The air had that classic, old hometown smell mixed in with a slight salty, ocean breeze, and the sky, like the games, had a permanent, perpetual sunset. No amount of pixels could ever simulate the substance of this world. There was so much she wanted to do. Trying sea-salt ice cream was definitely first on the list. She might even be able to afford it due to all the random pieces of loose change she spotted and picked up off the ground.

_Do recon on the area, pick up extra loot and items, search and explore hidden corners, remember where the shops are, always upgrade your equipment,_ Lila went over in her head. These were the standard tips of survival with video-games. However, reconnaissance gradually began to get old when they passed the same row of apartments for the umpteenth time.

"Lila," Riku began, having to stop once again while she picked up another coin, snapping Lila out of her daze, "I get that it's a new world and all, but could you stop wandering off every five minutes?"

"Maybe if you decided to slow down and ask for directions, I wouldn't be wandering off," she offered in rebuttal. It was frustrating to know where to go, but not be able to say anything about it. Her legs were starting to tire from all the walking they had been doing, dreading the intimidating hill she knew they would have to inevitably climb to get to Master Yen Sid's tower. Soon she wouldn't have any strength in her legs left to tackle it, and then where would we be? Lila refused to be seen as another weak female character, who could do nothing but heal and or summon monsters.

"I don't need directions. I know exactly where we're going. My friend drew me a map with instructions in-case we ran into this problem." Riku rolled his eyes before he stared hard at the piece of paper in his hand, trying to interpret the bits of scribbles on his wrinkled piece of paper.

"...You have no idea where you're going, do you?" Lila narrowed her eyes.

"His hand writing is... a little hard to read," Riku squinted slightly, not wanting to admit that he was completely clueless as he tried to decipher the tight and tiny curling letters.

"Here, give it," she frowned before boldly snatching the paper out of his hand. Lila turned the piece of paper around on her hand, concentrating hard on the poorly drawn streets. "...Is that supposed to be a sandlot?"

"Sandlot? I thought that was a courtyard." She peered down at the map, trying to interpret the scribbles before she threw her hands up in frustration, tossing the paper away.

"Ugh, whatever! Look, why don't you just _ask_ someone for directions? It can't be that hard. I'm sure somebody around here knows where the train station is."

"I told you, we don't need directions. I have a map," Riku denied, picking up and dusting off the piece of paper she threw on the ground. Rolling her eyes, Lila ignored Riku's male ego and started walking towards the sandlot. "Where are you going?"

"I going to ask for freaking directions! What's it look like?" she snapped. "Since you're too stubborn to ask for help with directions, I'm going to find someone who will." I began walking back before Riku placed his hand on my shoulder.

"I'm not _stubborn,_ " Riku frowned. "I'm just trying to keep you safe. It could be dangerous."

"Ha, dangerous?" Lila scoffed, pushing his hand off her shoulder. "We haven't seen a single Heartless since we left the subway tunnels, and I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of passing the same goddamn street sign that says 'The Struggle is Real' every five minutes!" she turned and pointed angrily at the colorful Struggle Tournament poster that seemed to be mocking her life. She stared at his stormy colored eyes, seeing not a hint of resolve in them. "You know what? Screw this. I'm done. Go wherever the hell you want, 'cause I'm heading to the train station." Not giving him time to react, Lila took off in a sprint down the closest alley that she could find.

"Lila, wait!" Riku called out, but it was too late. She was already gone. "Perfect..."

* * *

She would've liked to say that she found someone to ask almost immediately after storming off dramatically, but then she would be lying. Riku didn't want to work with her? Fine. She didn't want to work with him anyways. He always went off and did his own thing in canon anyways, not even considering how anyone else felt about it.

However, because she tried to lose Riku in the alleyway, Lila ended becoming lost as well. Why was this world so big? Traverse Town never was this hard to navigate, but this world had a lot more twists and turns that she couldn't figure out where she was until she'd ran into a dead-end and had to turn back. Why couldn't stuff like this have cheat codes like the games?

"Excuse me, are you alright?" Lila jumped slightly at the voice, caught off-guard before she relaxed, realizing it wasn't a Heartless. The voice belonged to a young woman with blonde hair and a blue blouse. She was so simple looking that most people could've written her off into the background. _Must've been why I didn't see her._

"Oh, hi, um," Lila stammered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. My friend and I were- I mean, I'm a little lost. I'm trying to find the train station."

"Oh sure. Just take that pathway up and turn left, and you'll be there."

"Cool. Thanks."

"No problem. So are you here for the Struggle Tournament?" the girl asked.

"What?"

"You're holding the poster," she pointed towards Lila's hand. In her fit of frustration earlier, the poster ended up being completely forgotten. Lila smoothed out the edges in her hand and examined the blue and orange text and icons. "You don't look like you're from around here. Are you from the Eastern region?" Catching the last bit of her sentence, Lila fumbled nervously with the paper.

"Uhhh yes," she lied, making it up as she went. "I'm here. To compete. From the Eastern region." She cringed. Her lying sounded awful, but the girl didn't seem to notice or care and went on talking about the tournament.

"Cool. I'm so excited for it. I'm finally going to try and compete this year. I'm not very good, but I'm going to try my very best."

"Good luck with that," Lila smiled.

"Well, I won't keep you. By the way, be sure not to end up in any dark alleys. I warn you because some weird shadow creatures come out and attack people, especially if you're not in a large group. I hope you have someone waiting for you."

"Oh... well I'm... meeting a friend, so I'll be fine," she lied with a shrug. "Well, thank you again, Miss."

"Casey."

"Huh?" Lila turned back to look at her.

"It's Casey."

"Okay. Thank you, Casey. I'm Lila," she extended out her hand toward the 'NPC,' which she took eagerly and shook.

"Nice to meet you, Lila. Hope to see you at the tournament." Casey beamed a mega-watt smile before taking off down towards a store. Lila waved a little before she went off on her own again, but not before she looked back. Casey was warmly greeted by some friends who were waiting to meet up with her and was kissed on the cheek by what appeared to be her boyfriend. The setting was very plain and average, nothing special about the group at all, but Lila couldn't help the strange feeling of loneliness come over her. Trying to shake the weird and sudden emotion off, Lila followed her instructions, managing to recognize the pathway to the station. Soon, she didn't even need her directions.

Easy. That was so easy! Why was it so hard for Riku to just ask for help, just once? Lila's hands twisted the Struggle Tournament poster, which was still clenched in her hands before she shoved it into her pocket. The more she thought about everything, the heavier her heart felt, matching the aching feeling in her legs, which were resembling lead more by the second. By the time she got to the top of the hill, Lila felt like her lungs were trying to kill her slowly.

"Dear god, this is the hill from _hell!_ " Lia gasped desperately. This must've been the hill Rocky had to run up and down for all of those training montages. Who thought it was a good idea to put a train station on top of a huge ass hill?

"You're just over-exaggerating. It's not that bad," remarked Riku, who surprised her from behind. If she hadn't been in denial, Lila could've said she was almost relieved before she suddenly remembered that she was mad at him.

"Oh, _screw you..._ Just because I don't have legs of steel, doesn't mean that this isn't hard," she quipped, managing to catch her breathe before she asked him, "What are you doing here anyways? How'd you find me?"

"Pluto found you." Lila looked down at the yellow beagle that she had left behind with him. Figures Riku wouldn't ask for directions, but would rather rely on a dog's sense of smell. _Damn. I would have loved to have found the station first so I could lord it over him._ Knowing it wasn't his fault, Lila lightly scratched Pluto's behind the ears, receiving a lick from him on the back of her hand.

"Looks like you found the train station."

"Yep."

"Guess you were right, then. To ask directions, I mean." Lila eyed him carefully, stretching her lips into a thin line. Since when did Riku ever admit that he was wrong? What was he getting at?

"Why are you here, Riku?" Lila finally asked, crossing her arms.

"My job. I still have to observe your progress," Riku explained plainly before muttering, "Whether either of us like it or not." Lila scoffed at his excuse, but decided it was the closest thing to an apology that she was going to get out of him. He still thought he was right about the Heartless, and Lila still thought she was right about asking for help. They were basically at an impasse.

"Fine. Just order the tickets already and let's get this over with," she exhaled gruffly. Just because he showed up again, didn't mean that she had to like him at the moment. Just tolerate him long enough until they met with Master Yen Sid. Then they could decide where to go from there. Maybe she wouldn't even have to see Riku all that much when she was training? It would be interesting to do a solo gig.

After Riku presented the conductor with two thousand munny, the conductor gave him two blue ticket stubs with stars on them. Gratefully, it wasn't long before the golden magical express appeared at the station, recognizing it by the iconic blue sorcerer's hat from _Fantasia_.

Being the only two people aboard the train, they both were on opposite sides of the train. Riku chose to stand and lean against the guard rail while Lila sat down on the other side and pat Pluto to calm her nerves.

"So uh... how about those Knicks?" Lila babbled, trying to create awkward small talk to fill the gaping silence.

"What?"

"Never mind..." And thus began the second longest ride of her life.


	7. Working Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything is awkward. Nothing is fixed. They go to see a magical wizard. Also stairs. Lots and lots of STAIRS!!!

**Background Soundtracks  
** **Magical Mysteries (Mysterious Tower Theme) by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix.**  
**Working Together by Project Destati**

It wasn't long before they arrived at Master Yen Sid's world, the Mysterious Tower, though it had felt like hours with the large amount of tension and crippling silence. True to its name, the tower existed on a floating isle that was surrounded by grassy hills obscured by clouds, giving it an air of mystery. It had blue, conical rooftops and was bent and twisted in a very odd angle that would put the leaning tower of Pisa to shame, while large pine trees bordered the edges of the island, acting almost like a nature-made barrier. The mystic purples of the starry night above and the orange marmalade sunset below the tower made the sky appear divided, emphasizing the world's unique quality of being stationed between darkness and light. The only tangible thing that connected them all together was the glowing railroad track that had brought us here, and it was built on nothing but air. It was incredibly surreal.

Stepping off the train, Lila felt her feet sink slightly into the squishy earth in front of the oddly shaped tower, the countryside softened by a recent rainstorm. She felt a shiver run up her spine as a slight breeze blew through her hair, though it was not the wind that made her feel cold. After feeling a constant pressure that someone was watching her, Lila turned her head and caught Riku looking at her back before his eyes quickly looked away.

Her gut churned and twisted uncomfortably, not enjoying being the center of attention as she shuffled towards the tower. Unsure if he was still looking, Lila glanced over at him, only this time she was the one caught staring as Riku's eyes met hers. Neither of them seemed to know what to do or say. All that she knew was that him constantly staring at her back was unsettling, so unsettling, in fact, that she had to untie her jacket around her waist and put it on just to keep him from staring.

She didn't understand. Why was he staring at her, and why was she feeling so guilty about all this? She had done nothing wrong. As if the silence wasn't bad enough...

_Maybe all of this could've been avoided if we traveled to Yen Sid's tower first rather than go through Twilight Town to get to it,_ Lila thought with a hopeless sigh, knowing it wouldn't change anything. It did strike up an interesting question though. Why did they have to through Twilight Town to end up here? They could've easily taken the Gummi ship all the way here, so why go through all the trouble of venturing through a different world to get to this one. That's what she couldn't figure out. The more that she thought about it, the less sense that everything seemed to make, her mind instantly jumping into a series of questions.

_Why was Riku alone in Traverse Town and not on the Destiny Islands? Where was my family? Why were we involved in all of this? Did it have to do with the keyblade? Why did I have a keyblade? Why didn't Riku use his keyblade? Why is there even a keyblade at all? How was a video-game real? And why, for the love of god, couldn't Riku and I talk like normal people?!_

Plagued by a headache and questions she had no answers to, Lila didn't even realize they had moved until they both suddenly stood at the foot of the tower. Maybe _Yen Sid will have some answers..._ She settled with that one thought and shoved the others away before continuing through the front door.

Looking up at the tower from the inside, her eyes had to immediately adjust to the immense size of it. The tower reminded her of the many historical lighthouses New Haven had open for tourists. Most would've thought of them as a historical landmark with fascinating structures and archaic detail, but to her they only meant one thing: Stairs. Lots and lots of stairs, not to mention the ugly panting, sweating, and swearing that came with it, followed by heated arguments and occasionally crying that usually occurred after visiting one. Lila was quickly reminded of this as she looked up the long, winding spiral-staircase.

Suffice it to say, she did not have many pleasant memories involving lighthouses, however, this one was somehow worse, because unlike the towers in New Haven, this one didn't have any hand-rails and was covered with Heartless, a group of Shadows and Soldiers appearing as soon as Riku had set foot on the steps. Lila gave the Heartless a sour look. That's all she needed right now. Appearing before Master Yen Sid as short-tempered, disgusting, AND out of shape. It would inevitably ruin her image. First impressions were EVERYTHING in her family, and she had already long since blown hers with Riku. This time, it would be different.

Summoning his weapon, Riku charged into the hoard with Pluto and rapidly slashed and knocked them down until there was nothing left, clearing a path for them. The further they went up the stairs, the more he seemed determined to make it up the tower without letting her fight. Torn between wanting to look presentable and fight to make a point on an older issue, Lila bit down on her lower lip and just settled with him fighting the Heartless alone, not having the energy to argue with him as she marched up the stairs behind him. The sooner she got her keyblade, the better.

Not wanting to be left behind, Lila did short sprints up the stairs behind her party members, though she had to occasionally stop between intervals to keep from sweating too much. Finally, they made it to the top of the staircase and stood outside the wizard's study where Riku knocked on the door. Not even bothering to wait for an answer, he pushed the door open and abruptly shut it behind us as Pluto collapsed on the floor panting heavily. Lila was close to joining him, having had to chase Riku up four flights of stairs, but she managed a few deep calming breathes to mask the exhaustion and tried to make herself somewhat presentable.

An old man with a stern expression moved from his bookcase to see who had disturbed him before turning to face his visitors. He had a long grey beard and was dressed in long blue robes, though it was his iconic pointy hat covered with stars and a crescent moon that gave him away.

"Master Yen Sid?" Riku addressed the wizened old man.

"Yes?"

"My name is Riku. I've been sent here on a mission by the King," Riku introduced slightly bowing his head before motioning over to Lila. "This is Lila Hoshiyama."

"Master Yen Sid, it is an honor to meet you, sir," she kowtowed with a low bow while she secretly thought, _though you have no idea how much._

"Ah yes, I've been expecting you both for quite some time now," Yen Sid nodded as he took a seat at his desk. "Is this the new wielder the King spoke of?"

"Yes. King Mickey thinks she might have the potential to wield a keyblade," Riku explained, crossing his arms in a patronizing way. "However, I have yet to see her summon it."

"Oh, so you don't believe I can do it?" Lila challenged, placing her hands on her hips.

"I never said that," he defended.

"But you implied it," she argued back. "You've been implying it all the way here. You either don't let me fight or you ignore my advice. You wouldn't even let me take out a measly Shadow."

"That's only because we couldn't prove that you could summon a keyblade, so sorry if I didn't feel like it was a good idea to send a defenseless little girl up to fight against a Heartless."

"I am _not_ defenseless," Lila pointed her finger at him, giving him an icy glare. Before things could escalate further, Yen Sid silenced them both with a wave of his hand.

"I would appreciate it if you two didn't bring your personal issues into this discussion. We have important matters to discuss in so little time," Yen Sid scolded earnestly. "Now then, it appears Lila is in the same situation as you, Riku. The King has told me much about your training to wield the keyblade, and yet it fails to bear any results."

"Training with the King? Wait a second, so you're not...?" Lila voiced her thoughts aloud before she caught herself.

"'You're not' what?" Riku eyed her curiously.

_You're not able to wield the keyblade yet._

"You're not... a normal person? You're a keyblade wielder?" she finished with a lie.

"I was... I am. It's just... I'm unable to at the moment," Riku corrected, trailing off. A confused look fell over her face. _What was going on?_ _I thought Riku was supposed to wield the keyblade._ _Why is Riku training with King Mickey instead of staying on the Destiny Islands? Wasn't this all taking place after the second game? ...Then again, he was wearing the gear from the first two games... Argh! This is so confusing! This isn't like the games at all!_ Her brow furrowed briefly in frustration before she quickly hid her expression, though it did not go unnoticed by Yen Sid, who observed the situation carefully.

"It matters not if you have or have not mastered it. The point being is that the potential is there, Riku." The master answered. He looked towards Lila with watchful eyes that seemed to peer into her very soul. "And after looking into your heart, Lila, it appears that you too have the potential to wield a keyblade."

"R-Really?" Lila let out a startled breathe. She often put up a confident front when she was talking to Riku, but she still hadn't actually believed that she could do it, or at least, she had _hoped_ she could do it. Was that the problem? Had the lack of certainty prevented her from wielding a keyblade?

"Yes, though you have yet to give it form. If you somehow doubt your merit, perhaps a test is necessary to determine your potential," Yen Sid suggested.

"Umm," Lila interrupted him, wanting to get something else off her chest. "Before we get into that, I'm told that you have the ability to locate people. Recently, my world fell into darkness, and I was with my mother and sister when it happened. Do you think you can help me locate them? Their names are Yukino and Kurami Hoshiyama."

"I can certainly try," he nodded. He closed his eyes in concentration as the air around him seemed to change, focused on reading the energies of the universe. His brow furrowed and twitched slightly and after a few short moments, he opened his eyes again. "Hmm... interesting." He spoke not a word, but his expression held many secrets before he addressed the silver-haired boy. "Riku."

"Yes, Master?"

"I would prefer to speak with Miss Hoshiyama alone," Yen Sid said. "There are matters I wish to discuss with her privately." Riku hesitated with uncertainty, but decided not to question the old master as he nodded slowly and stepped out of the room.

The noise of the door shutting behind him echoed in Lila's ears, suddenly aware that she and Yen Sid were the only people in the room as she twisted the ends of her sleeves. Suddenly not having Riku being here felt like having a security blanket ripped away. For all his pomp and circumstance, she didn't realize how safe she felt when Riku was around, probably because he was crazy strong in the games. She didn't understand the feeling herself. Initially, she had thought she disliked his company, not exactly fond of him as a character in the video games and wanting to get everything over with as soon as possible, but maybe that wasn't the case.

"So uhh, is this a good news, bad news situation or what?" Lila blurted out with nervous laughter, catching her word vomit too late. _What are you doing, you idiot!? You're not 'shooting the breeze' with your guy friends!_ He showed no changes in emotion but luckily didn't seem to notice or care about her improper speech as he addressed the issue.

"For reasons I cannot ascertain, I am unable to create a vision of where your family may be. I've tried looking to the stars for answers, but for some reason, the heavens appear fuzzy when I try to look further into it. So I am sorry, but I am unable to currently look for your family."

"Oh... well, thank you anyways for trying." Lila gave him a wan smile as she shoved her hands into her pockets. She chewed the inside of her cheek. Figures it wouldn't be that easy.

"Do not yet lose hope. Light can be found in the deepest darkness. I am certain that you will be reunited with your family," Yen Sid advised before adopting a soft expression. "Hearts are funny things. They often build connections, invisible ties that piece together bits of other people's hearts. Despite the separation, so long as you remain in another's heart, all hearts that are connected to each other will inevitably find each other again."

"Maybe..."

"You seem to be troubled by something."

"Oh, umm, all of this is just a little overwhelming," Lila admitted nervously. "You see, I didn't think all this was possible until yesterday. I'm still sort of taking everything in."

"That is to be expected," Yen Sid nodded in agreement. "No doubt losing one's world would do that to a person."

"No it's... it's not just that. Umm..." she anxiously rubbed the back of her neck. "How do I explain this?" _I might as well tell someone, otherwise I think I'll go friggin' nuts!_

"I'm sure that you are aware that there are many worlds out there, yes?"

"You are correct."

"But the thing is, I don't just come from another world," Lila took a deep breathe before finally letting the truth out. "I think I come from another universe."

* * *

"What is taking them so long?" Riku asked himself as he tapped his foot on the ground. Normally, he was fairly patient, but the sudden separation during a matter than involved him left a bad taste in his mouth. Why had Yen Sid asked Lila to speak in private? What issues could they be addressing that they couldn't discuss in front of him? He suddenly felt like a student waiting outside the principal's office, unsure and anxious of what was going to befall him when he opened the door.

Then again, why did it have to involve him? If the master was consulting Lila on private matters like the whereabouts of her family, he could respect that decision. Still, it didn't make him any less curious about it.

"Please consider all that I've told you," Yen Sid advised Lila as she stepped outside his study. Her mouth turned up slightly. Her posture indicated that she was relieved of some sort of burden. However, the moment her eyes locked with his, her shoulders stiffened and became abrasive again.

"We must speak quickly, as time is of the essence," the old wizard continued urgently. "This land is unlike others. While other worlds remain steadfast in their orientation, this one tends to change location due to the fluctuation of darkness and light within the realm. Recently, I have sensed an increase of darkness in the area, and after consulting with Lila, it appears to be worse than I feared."

"An increase of darkness?" Riku asked.

"After consulting with Lila over the conditions that befell her world, it seems that unknown forces are working from within the shadows to bring about an era of darkness."

"How is that possible?" Riku exclaimed with worry laced in his voice. "I was there with Sora when we closed the Door to Darkness. Shouldn't have the worlds been restored?"

"Yes, you are correct. By locking the keyholes and closing the Door to Darkness, the worlds should have been restored and become separate once more. However, it appears that the barriers have weakened due to unknown means, as I'm sure you know, Riku."

"Huh? You mean it wasn't possible before?" Lila questioned, looking towards Riku who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. Up until a couple weeks ago, travel between worlds was impossible," Riku clenched his fist by his side and brought it to his chest. "It's one of the reasons why I've trained with the King for so long. I was stuck at Disney Castle for three months until new pathways suddenly opened up that the Gummi ships started working again."

"It seems that these recent events have disrupted the balance that was established when you and Sora closed the Door. The imbalance has somehow created new pathways between worlds that were otherwise impossible," Yen Sid furrowed his brow in deep thought before turning his sharp gaze towards the silver haired teen. "With that in mind, it is that much more important that you continue traveling with Lila and seek out the cause of this imbalance."

"What?" Riku blinked, not sure that he heard him correctly. This was a joke, right? He was expected to still travel with this capricious girl? Did Yen Sid not have the answers she was looking for? He looked towards Lila, who bit her lip and kept her eyes cast down towards the floor.

"You, yourself, Riku, should be able to understand the situation better than anyone else, for it is an imbalance within yourself that I believe is the cause of your inability to wield your keyblade." Riku let out a small gasp of air. An imbalance? That was the reason? Did that mean his heart wasn't strong enough? Did the darkness still have a hold on him? No... that couldn't be! He had trained so hard with the King, he was constantly surrounded by light. There was no way that the darkness still existed within him. He had cast it aside! And yet... hearing the old master's words, they cut deeply into him. Turning his head, Riku clenched his fist with a determined expression. He refused to let it take hold again. He wouldn't let it!

Lila silently watched him as he turned his sharp blue-green eyes towards the old wizard as he continued with his instruction.

"In order for you both to be tested as true wielders of the keyblade, you must overcome many obstacles. Riku, you must learn to work together with others. Lila possesses vast knowledge of strategy and the enemies we face, so you must learn to heed others' advice. And Lila," Yen Sid advised, Lila instantly looking up when she heard him call her name. "You must learn to trust in others' experiences rather than what you have read about in books. Knowledge is a great and powerful thing, but it can be a heavy burden if one relies on information alone. Riku retains an incredible amount of strength and courage when dealing with the darkness. His experiences in fighting them will no doubt increase your knowledge and proficiency in handling them. Only by the two of you working together, can you both achieve your goals."

Riku and Lila looked back and forth from each other and the old master, contemplating his sagely advice. Neither seemed to want part in dealing with the other, but there was begrudging acceptance in their eyes. Riku knew, deep down, that if an old master was telling him sagely advice on how to wield a keyblade, something that he hadn't been able to do for months, then he should probably hear the guy out before judging its effectiveness.

"Now then, in order to further your careers as keyblade wielders as well as locate missing parties, I wish for you to seek out an old acquaintance of mine. The man you want to see is a young wizard called Howl. He will train you both in the fine art of magic. I would normally do it myself, but I have long since retired from the ways of the keyblade, and since circumstances being what they are, I would've been unable to regardless," he turned his gaze towards the male teen. "Riku, I understand that you have some previous dealings with magic, however I would think it best that you cast all previous notions aside and start anew. The King tells me that you are lacking in the magic field. I think studying under Master Howl would benefit in helping you overcome your block."

Riku mulled this over a bit. He had been unable to perform the most basic magic spells since he helped Sora close the Door to Darkness, even with Mickey's help. Maybe it wasn't such a terrible idea to see if this Howl guy could teach him a thing or two.

"Alright," Riku shrugged as he crossed his arms. "So where do we find this guy?"

"Normally, Howl is a bit difficult to track down, since he often doesn't stay in one place for very long, but he has four main areas that he likes to appear. One is in Traverse Town while the second is in Hollow Bastion. Unfortunately, the third and fourth places are currently unknown, as they have been known to change over time. However, all of these places are rendered inconsequential should you find his large, flying castle that tends to roam the night sky."

Suddenly, the room briefly shook, as if the world has somehow shifted. Pluto let out a startled yelp before barking at the strange earthquake as Riku reeled back from the sudden increase of the scent of darkness flooding into his nose.

"What was that?" Lila exclaimed in alarm.

"It seems that this is where we must part ways," Yen Sid answered gravely before extending out his hand, opening the study's door with his magic. "The train will take you both back to Twilight Town, but be warned, the town may not be the same world coming back."

"Will you be alright?" Lila asked Yen Sid out of concern. The old wizard nodded with a slight smile, touched by her concern.

"This is not an unusual circumstance for me, as I have dealt with the fickleness of this world for many years now. Now then," he stood up from his study and gave them a serious and direct stare. "Lila, Riku, I wish you both luck and may the light be with you on your journey."

"Yes sir," they both answered, bowing their heads slightly in respect. They both took their leave out the door with Pluto walking behind them. The dog briefly paused and turned back to stare at the old master.

"Be sure they don't get into too much mischief," the master advised with a small twinkle in his eye. Pluto let out a cheerful bark in confirmation before running after the pair and the wizard was left alone to his own devices.


	8. Beneath the Surface

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, we get the true Dive to the Heart moment, where Lila encounters her own Stations of Awakening. Foreshadowing for very distant future plot!!!

**Background Soundtracks **  
**Oratorio from the World God Only Knows  
My Heart's Descent by Yoko Shimomura**  
**Destati by Project Destati  
** **Fantasies Encore (Final Boss Suite - Dive to the Heart ONLY) by Symphonic Fantasies**  
**Destati by Yoko Shimomura from Drammatica**

_**"What I'm seeing, is it real? What I'm feeling, is it real?** _  
_**What I'm doing, is it real?  
There is no regret, satisfy my curiosities,** _  
_**There is a new world waiting, explore my possibilities,** _  
**There is no guarantee, just improve my abilities,**   
**There is a choice to make, setting the right priorities..."**

_A panicked yell, a sharp scream, and a crash of water._

_Falling... sinking..._

_Lila plunged head-first towards the ocean floor like a stone dropped in the water, her hair slowly rippling and unraveling around her face like the gentle uncurling of jellyfish's tentacles as the dark abyss below enveloped her in its suffocating embrace. Terror and the sting of the crash paralyzed her as the currents pulled her towards the direction they wanted to go._ _All air has been knocked out of her. Her chest tightened in fear of drowning, but instead of inhaling water, she was surprised to learn she was able to breathe. Bubbles trailed from her mouth in shock before_ _was pulled to the bottom. Disoriented from the sudden descent, she awkwardly managed to land on her feet, the crush of sand revealing that gravity had returned to normal as it no longer clouded around her ankles like an underwater dust storm.  
_

_Suddenly, everything flashed white. She instinctively shielded her face, temporarily blinded by the intensity as the ground evaporated into thousands of white flower petals that scattered away like bird feathers, leaving behind a large stain-glass pillar mixed with dark blues, greens, and lavender._ _The figure in the station was falling down and held its hands close to its chest, holding onto a bright star. It was colored in navy blues and chrome silver alloy though the helmet resembled that of a Soldier Heartless. The plates on its body made it look almost like the figure had mechanical wings, like an angel that had fallen from the sky._

_Though she was surrounded by darkness, Lila knew this place somehow, and yet she had never been here before. She tried to put a memory towards the familiar setting, but her mind is spread too thin from all of the current events until a gentle whisper silenced her racing thoughts._

_**Don't be afraid...** soothed a whispering voice. It sounds like Lila's mom, but the voice held no feminine quality other than the warmth of a mother's affection._

_"Who are you? Where am I? What is this?" Lila asked. She could almost hear light, almost musical laughter ring through the air._

_**You're a curious one, aren't you? So many questions, so little time...** _ _the Voice cooed, t_ _he tension in Lila's shoulders slackening as she realized that this mysterious voice didn't mean any harm._

 **_I have come to test your heart... To see if you are worthy...  
_ ** _"Why? Worthy of what? What's the point of all this?" There was a pregnant pause. An almost inaudible sigh lifted into the air before the Voice continued._

 _ **Still so many questions... Now I shall be the one to ask.**_ _ **Remember there are no right answers, only questions...**_ **_Knowledge, power, freedom, or truth... Which of these appeals to you?_**

_Lila thought for a moment towards the answer to the cryptic puzzle. Since it seemed to be a logic based inquiery, it only made sense to addressing it logically. "Knowledge, because only through knowledge can one obtain the power and freedom to seek out the truth."  
_

_**Through knowledge, one can see many roads... What do you seek?** _

_The next question left her perplexed. It was like the Voice was searching for some special, life-altering answer, but when no such answer came, the familiar longing in her heart made Lila blurt out, "Family." I_ _mmediately, she clappped her hands over her mouth. She didn't mean for that to slip out, to fall to her impulsive ways, but the Voice didn't seem to disregard her response as incorrect or false and continued onto its next question._

_**What do you hope to gain?** _

_"What do I hope to gain?" Lila thought out-loud before asking. "What? Do you mean from seeking my family?" The Voice didn't answer._ Well, that's helpful. _Lila thought over what related to her first response, but end up wandering towards an older issue she didn't want drudged up._

 _"Answers," she finally admited albeit a bit hesitantly_ _, the old ache returning before she shoved it back down like bile from nausea_ _._

_**Why do you hesitate? What frightens you the most?** _

_Tension returned to her shoulders as she grit her teeth and clamped her mouth shut, refusing to answer, but her head was reeling and unfiltered. The air hummed in disapproval of her actions._

_**I see... I sense that your mind is scattered. Over the years, your heart has been fractured by doubt and insecurity, abandoned by those closest to you, and your mind has been clouded with arrogance and anxiety, however... your soul remains pure. Someone like you may hold the key, the key to understanding the truth. But remember this: the truth can be a burdensome thing. There is no clear path. Do you still wish to go?** _

_Lila can't move. She can't breathe. She can't think. The Voice's tone was comforting, but the words that it said sent chills down her spine, tearing away at an old hurt long since forgotten and buried. She wanted to run away, but something deep in her gut told her to keep going, that it will all be over soon if she kept moving forward._ _As if to illustrate this, a small ball of light descended from above and transformed into a small Morpho butterfly. It circled around her, as if to examine her before flitting away towards the edge of the pillar._

_"Wait! Come back!" Lila yelled, chasing the blue butterfly towards the edge before she abruptly stopped, nearly toppling over the edge into the abyss. It was a long way down. The creature floated just out of reach, but far away enough that it seemed foolhearty to reach out and grab it. A glimmer from its wings created a pane-glass staircase at her feet and wound upward towards a newly formed station. With nowhere else to go, Lila followed the butterfly up the mosaic steps before arriving at the new platform. As its last act, the butterfly flew up into the sky and disappearing with the last of the pillar's creation._

_This area was a lighter color with mixes of oranges and yellows, and a slight touch of purple on the outlines, with a figure displayed on the upper-half of the station. Donned in armor like the previous figure, this one appeared sharp and determined and had a fierce looking helmet, its jaw resembling a gigantic maw with a row of sharp teeth and a distinct beard. The figure was positioned like it was floating on its back, looking up towards the sky with its hand reaching out towards the heavens.  
_

_**A power sleeps within you, if you give it form... It will give you strength...** _

_Suddenly, four pedestals erupted from the ground, each one containing an element on each tablet. One of them contained a floating bubble of water surrounding a clump of ice, while another had a constant blowing gust of air spiraling into a small tornado. The other two displays had a small flower growing out of a dark stone and a burning ball of fire._

_Lila stood in the center of these four pedestals, weighing her options. Though she delicately examined the petals of the flower and curiously wondered how the tornado could keep itself tangible and moving, she felt herself drawn to the little ball of light like a moth to a flame. Her hands slowly encompassed around the orb, making sure to never touch it. She could feel the warmth flutter between her fingers, the flickering of the flame acting like a beating heart as it lifted into the air with the motion of her hands as she picked it up and examine its luminescent glow.  
_

_**Fire is power, creation, transformation, and devastating destruction. Is this the power you seek?  
** _

_Unsure if the Voice could really see her or not, Lila nodded and the ball of fire shot off sparks of light before rekindling into yet another butterfly, only this time it resembled a monarch butterfly._

_**There will be times where you will have to fight... though judge not with your eyes. Appearances can be deceiving...** _

_Right after the Voice spoke, the pedestals were consumed by dark clouds and reappeared as newly transformed Shadow Heartless, now skittering across the floor. The butterfly passed through Lila like an apparition, and with it, a new power suddenly coursed through her. Fire balls formed at the edges of her fingertips before she hurled them at her opponents. It eliminated them with ease. Excited with this newfound power, Lila cast more fireballs but failed to notice that the ground had suddenly been set ablaze.  
_

**_Knowledge is power, but arrogance will lead to ruin... Heed your use of both..._ **

_The butterfly flitted around her, leaving a sparkling trail of light that lead to a newly created staircase._ _Faced with no other options other than to be burned to a crisp, Lila once again followed the butterfly until she stopped at the final pillar. Unlike the other stations, this one remained blank and translucent, only reflecting a clear surface.  
_

_The butterfly passed through her oncemore, removing the power she'd once had and bestowed it onto three items that had appeared: a baseball bat, a backpack, and an umbrella.  
_

**_Now you must choose your weapon... it will harness your power..._ **

_While a bat could do a lot of damage, it is made of wood and not rod-iron steel like an umbrella and would probably not last long against strong opponents. The backpack could act as a shield but have less offensive moves. The umbrella was a balance between the two, but wasn't as sturdy as the backpack or as strong as the bat. Either way_ _, what good were any of these useless household items in a fight?_

_**Cast away all previous notions of what you think you know and open your mind to new possibilities. Only with an open mind will you be able to see the way, the path lead by your heart...** _

_Lila tried to pick apart the phrasing but ended up choosing the umbrella, the perfect balance of sword and shield. The leftover objects disappeared into specks of light, the butterfly fluttering its wings before taking off.  
_

**_You have now gained the ability to fight... But_ ** _**remember this... The brighter the light, the stronger your the shadow becomes...** _

_Suddenly, the butterfly from earlier joined with the monarch and danced around each other before merging into what looked like a white African swallowtail. Despite its innocent appearance, it gave off an intimidating aura. It landed softly on Lila's reflection, which suddenly ripples and distorts until it was apparent that she was standing in a large puddle. The water began to spread further and further until it reached the entire platform, dropping off the edges like a waterfall before it solidified like ice and created the final pillar. The white butterfly flied around her, only this time its wings had grotesquely absorbed her reflection and distorted it. Through ice and water, the butterfly was engulfed by the elements until it morphed into an exact copy of Lila, though there is an alteration. Her hair is darker, almost black, and curled into wild disarray, and instead of brown eyes, she found piercing golden orbs staring back at her.  
_

_Trying to be bold and make the first move, Lila swung her umbrella around and tried to hit her double, but it didn't seem to affect it that much as the double blocked with an exact movement and finesse as her strike. The more she fought against with it, the more she learned of her own abilities._ _Holding up her weapon in the air would cause large bolts of lightning rained down from the tip that would channeled to the ground, while opening it created an icy shield. Spinning it around unleashed a tornado of wind and spinning the umbrella as a whole creates a wheel of fire. However, no matter what Lila did, the battle didn't seem to be getting anywhere. If she shifted one way, her doppelganger followed. If she cast a fire spell, it would counteract it with ice. After casting every spell and action that she knew was when the Voice spoke up again._

_**Disregarding your darker half will only result in splitting your powers. Owning up to that responsibility will make you whole, and responsibility demands sacrifice...** _

_Regarding the Voice's words, an idea suddenly came to me. There was no other way._

_After playing an insane game of Simon Says for what feels like forever, Lila turned her umbrella around and stabbed herself in the chest with the point. Her reflection does not predict this, and it begins to splinter from the blow before shattering into a million pieces. Though Lila was injured, she still remained strong and steadfast, albeit a bit less together than she was before._

_**Though you have kept your darkness at bay, you cannot hide your true self... Eventually, the truth will come out... Only when you've accepted both halves of these truths can you be at peace...  
** _

_With that said, the double's crystalline remains melted back into water and formed a puddle on the floor, but instead of evaporating, it grew dark in color until it was completely pitch black. The puddle reached out and clung to Lila's foot, suctioning it down like quicksand. She struggled to pull it free, but her hands were ensared along with her other foot, making it easier to pull her under the dark abyss. The darkness was suffocating, almost like a great weight was on her chest as her heart constricted inside the dark chains, and yet... the surrender resulted in a peaceful release. As she found herself falling once more, Lila managed to the Voice's last words of advice.  
_

_**Not all are granted this power. There is no discrimination between good and evil. Only those strong of heart are capable of wielding such strength. What you choose may affect the outcome of many. Make your decisions wisely and prove that you are worthy, Lila...  
** _

_**Lila...** _

_Lila..._

"LILA!"

"Mmmhmm-ruagh! What?! What?" she slurred, suddenly jarred awake from a violent shake.

"We're here," Riku announced before stepping back and taking his hand off her shoulder. Lila stretched her arms with a loud yawn and popped her neck. _Must've dozed off from the afternoon sun._

"How long was I out for?"

"About ten minutes."

 _Holy crap, I had a dream like that in only ten minutes?! Wait... what was the dream about again?_ Lila frowned, unable to remember exactly what occurred. The only memory leftover was the solemn fear of the unknown and the flapping of a butterfly's wings.


	9. Count the Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila and company returns to Twilight Town, though it's a bit different than their last visit. Meanwhile Yen Sid is greeted by an old acquaintance (character crossover!). Also inner turmoil and apologies run amuck!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone~
> 
> I forgot to mention this in my recent chapter, but I'm sure a more than few of you were surprised that my story name, The Girl and the Keyblade, had changed into "The Butterfly Effect." This change was the final breakaway from my old story to prove that this was a true rewrite.
> 
> I find that this name has a better ring to it and that searching for it was initially why I had never changed the old name up until now. I often have a problem breaking away from old habits and old dynamics, but no more! I've spent the last couple of years improving my writing, and I think this story will be the culmination of all that hard work.
> 
> I also want to give a special thanks to all who have supported me. Whether you have reviewed, followed, gave me kudos, or all of the above, I really appreciate you taking an interest in my story, and I hope to exceed all of your expectations of it!

**Background Soundtracks  
The Witch of the Waste by Joe Hisaishi from Howl's Moving Castle**   
**Pictures at an Exhibition - IV. II Vecchio Castello (The Old Castle) by Modest Mussorgsky**   
**Friends in Our Hearts by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix.**   
**Strange Whispers by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix**

Yen Sid sat expectantly in his study resting his forehead against his folded hands, his brow furrowed in deep thought. He already knew who had come to see him, sensing the immense amount of dark energy gathering around him. The acrid smell of darkness coated the air like smoke from a cigarette and attached itself to everything in the room.

"Come out, unless you are planning to lurk in the shadows all day," Yen Sid challenged the air, and for a while, that was all that surrounded him until a shadow-cloaked figure stepped out of a dark corridor that formed in front of his desk. The shadows curled and lingered around the figure until they dissipated with the corridor, revealing a large plump woman wearing a long black dress and fur shawl. Her light red hair was pulled back into a bun and tucked underneath her Victorian plume hat that coquettishly hid her wrinkled face that was plastered with way too much make up. To anyone else, she appeared like a wealthy old woman, but Yen Sid knew better. She was almost as ancient as he was, if not older.

"Yen Sid," the woman addressed him with a slight nod, the fat folds of her neck almost suffocating the red-bead necklace that hung around her double-chin. "So kind of you to show me in. Nice to know your manners haven't disappeared over the years. How did you know that I'd arrived?"

"It is difficult not to notice. After all, it's not everyday that I get to speak with the Witch of the Waste. How, may I ask, did you escape?" He bated her, knowing that her arrogance would reveal everything to him. She let out a low chuckle, her smile stretched sickeningly sweet across her face before she hid it behind her regal black fan.

"After that foolish King abandoned me and cast me out into the Realm Between, I had only shadows to keep me company," the Witch of the Waste explained, her voice laced with hints of bitter scorn.

"You forget that it was your association with the shadows and the havoc that you wrought with them that was the cause of your banishment."

"You speak as if you had something to do with that whole debacle," her eyes fluttered behind her fan, acting like a cat stalking her prey. "The King was your pupil, wasn't he? Surely, you didn't order him to banish me, did you?"

"Former pupil," Yen Sid corrected. "And whatever decision he made involving you, it was by following his own heart and judgement, not my own." The Witch of the Waste closed her fan and adopted a faraway look as she walked casually towards Yen Sid's bookshelf.

"Where is Howl?" she changed the subject, deciding to cut to the chase on why she was really here, as she ran her finger down the spine of one of the books before casually pulling it out to look it over.

"I do not know. It has been many years since I've last seen Howl," Yen Sid denied instantly, not surprised at all that the sorceress was looking for Howl. Her eyes glanced slyly up at him from the page she was currently on.

"Now, don't you lie to me, Yen Sid," she eyed him with a knowing smile. "We've been friends for far too long to stop being honest with one another. You know, as well as I do, that you have quite the talent for finding people. After all, you sent two of your guests after him only moments ago." Her finger stirred the crystal ball like she was wiping off the dust but instead the orb began to manifest a swirling picture of the two figures that were in his study earlier.

"The girl, for lack of a wardrobe, is obviously trying too hard with her looks. I can practically smell the desperation on her, but the boy certainly is handsome, especially with all that darkness surrounding him. Perhaps I had better ask him instead."

"If we've been friends for as long as you say, then you know that I can't let you do that," Yen Sid said gravely as he stood up from his desk.

"Oh don't be so dramatic, Yenny," the Witch waved flippantly with a mischievous glint in her sharp blue eyes, closing her book with one hand, the sound echoing across the room. "I only want to ask them where he is. No harm shall come to them."

"Weren't you the one that said that we shouldn't lie to each other?" Yen Sid smirked. The two stood in silence for a moment, the tension prickling the air like icy needles.

"Perceptive, aren't you?" Furious dark energy began pouring out of her before she charged towards the wizard. Yen Sid quickly defended her blow with a clear colored force-field of his own. A hexagonal pattern reverberated against the clash before restoring itself to a clear shine. The battle between mages had begun.

* * *

After stepping onto the platform, the train disappeared in a sparkling flash of light, sealing the finality of Yen Sid's world detaching from Twilight Town. If it wasn't for Riku and Lila being witnesses, it would be as if the train had never existed at all. The walk down from the station was easier now that they knew where they were going, but like the train ride back, it still held an uncomfortable air, though Lila's impromptu nap did lessen the tension somewhat. Normally, Riku didn't mind having things be quiet, but this particular silence was almost unbearable.

Riku didn't understand girls. He had known his friend Kairi for years, and he still didn't understand her. Their emotions were so chaotic, so unpredictable, especially Lila, who came off incredibly capricious.

What was Lila so mad about? Was it because they had to work together now? That was a possibility, but that was a more recent event and still didn't explain why she was silent before going to Master Yen Sid's tower. Then it had to be the incident with directions... but that seemed too trivial to still be angry about, and he still didn't understand why she got mad about that in the first place. If that wasn't it, then what was she still holding a grudge for? Unable to make any sense of it all, the silence went on like this the further they walked down the hill until Riku decided to uncharacteristically break the silence, a curious question still buzzing around at the back of his mind.

"So what did Master Yen Sid want to talk to you about anyway?" Riku asked Lila casually as he put his hands behind his head, stretching from the train ride. Her posture stiffened slightly and became unresponsive, like he had asked her the million dollar question. _  
_

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me," he shrugged, understanding that everyone had their secrets. She appeared to hesitate, if only for a moment, before she decided to answer him.

"It... it wasn't anything I didn't already know..." Lila admitted vaguely, not wanting to push the matter any further. Riku slightly shifted his feet a bit before he dropped his hands and turned towards her.

"Did he at least manage to find anything about where your family is?" he asked her, hopeful that she had received some form of good news. She shook her head.

"No..." she frowned, "He said that he was... unable to locate my family due to unknown circumstances." It was then that he could see it. The look in her eyes. He knew that look. The plaguing feeling of doubt and uncertainty, wondering if those closest to you were alright.

"I'm sorry," was all he said, giving her a sympathetic look. What else could he say? Normally he wasn't very good with words, but it appeared to be the right thing to say as she offered him a small smile.

"Thanks," she said softly. She met his eyes briefly before looking forward again as confusion fell over her brow. "Wait a second-! Did you just...?" She trailed off and gave him an alarmed look.

"What?" He stopped in place, confused by her behavior. She leaned forward and pointed at him like something had just occurred to her.

"You did, didn't you?" she gaped at him. What? What did he do? Was he too nosy? Did he accidentally touch a nerve? Did he not give her enough personal space? What was this girl trying to tell him!?

"Did what?"

"You said you're sorry." He gave her blank look, an utter loss for words. All of this was because he said he was sorry? How did that make any sense? Why was it such a big deal that he said he was sorry?

"Y-Yeah, so what?" he shrugged after managing to find the words, crossing his arms.

"I hadn't heard you say that since I first met you! I was beginning to think you didn't know the words," she cheered in success, looking at him with a gleeful, almost smug, look in her eye, like a cat who had caught the canary.

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, because you never apologized to me about the-" she began to explain when Riku noticed an unusual shift in the air and immediately shushed her.

"Be quiet!" he ordered, causing Lila to stop and adopt a bewildered expression.

" _Excuse_ me?" she raised an eyebrow.

"No, seriously, just... be quiet for a second," he urged her with a wave of his hands, and after a couple seconds, she complied. He began listening to the hush that had fallen over the town. "You hear that?"

Lila squinted, intently trying to focus on what he was listening for. "...No?"

"Exactly," Riku confirmed, causing Lila to give him an incredulous stare. "Haven't things seemed a bit... quiet to you since we got here? We've been wandering around town for a while now, and so far we've hardly seen anyone," he frowned as his eyes locked with Lila's gaze. "Doesn't that strike you as odd that there's no one outside on a weekday afternoon?"

"...Now that you mention it," she thought aloud, thinking back to how quiet it was when they had arrived. "But maybe it's lunch hour and everyone's gone home to eat?" She added optimistically, earning an odd look from Riku. She shrugged. "Hey, I didn't say it was a good idea. I'm just coming up with suggestions here. I mean, is it actually afternoon?"

"I think so, judging from the clock-tower, although it's hard to tell with this town. The sun hasn't moved at all since we've been here. It's almost as if it was..." Riku trailed off. _A world in-between darkness and light, a world-between._ He had remembered hearing the King tell him about the other types of worlds. That there were worlds that were part of the Realm of Light, the Realm of Darkness, and the Realm Between. While the Realm of Light had less probability of having naturally reoccurring Heartless, Realm Between was neutral territory between the two opposing realms and could fall either way if it was too close to either side. It was one of the reasons those kind of worlds were exceptionally rare.

Traverse Town was one of them, and judging by what Master Yen Sid said about his world, his tower was probably another one. It only made sense that Twilight Town was a possibility. Even the word 'twilight' was the description of sky when it was still light out but just on the precipice of night.

"Riku?" Lila called out to him, curious as to why he had dropped off in the middle of his sentence. He responded by summoning his weapon.

"Looks like we'll have to be on our guard from now on," Riku warned, gripping the handle of his sword. "This world is part of the Realm Between, which makes it very susceptible to darkness, so keep your eyes open for anything." Almost as if to illustrate his point, Pluto's hair began standing up as he let out a slowly building growl. Riku began to sense a dark energy in the area, but couldn't pin-point where it was coming from. It was like a lurking presence from behind, as if someone was watching him.

"Here, take this," he stated as he pulled out and chucked a Hi-Potion towards her. "Just in case it gets really bad out there. It's a bit stronger than a potion, so it should heal most wounds."

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"Hey Riku, here's the bigger question," Lila's voice quivered, frozen in place. "If there are no people out, why do I see their shadows?" He turned to see her pointing to an array of human-shaped shadows standing in the distance. They began to creep closer and closer until they were close enough to show that they were in-fact human. Riku lowered his weapon in confusion. They looked like people, but they gave off a dark energy like the Heartless.

"Riku, look!" Lila exclaimed, pointing to the ground. "They have two shadows!" As soon as she said that, that was the people's cue to charge. The group began running towards the duo, armed with whatever they could find. They had a tangible dark aura, but it was the golden eyes glowing in the darkness of their shadows that gave them away. Heartless were involved and that was all that he needed to know. While Pluto would knock over his opponents with the bright, golden aura that appeared around him when he charged, Riku was knocking down opponents left and right that tried to approach him or Lila. Unable to do anything other than to block a punch that Riku couldn't, Lila's facial expression showed her to be deep in thought. It wasn't until she accidentally stepped on one of the opponents' shadows that she suddenly felt a dark mist cling to her leg before letting go after she managed to pull away her foot.

"That looks like..." Lila mumbled before shouting, "Riku!"

"Yeah?" he yelled back as he blocked another swing from a rotund man before disarming him and knocking him back a few feet.

"Don't hurt them! They're not Heartless, they're people!" she cried out. His eyes widened.

"What?!"

"They're just being possessed! They have no control!" she warned him as she pulled a struggle bat out her enemy's hands and shoved them back with her foot. Riku grit his teeth. Now what? If they were Heartless, that was a different story, but he couldn't go all out against innocent people. He knew better than most what it was like to have no control over yourself.

Riku let out a frustrated groan before he turned his sword to the back of the blade and pushed his current attackers over so that they toppled over another. One of the townsfolk chose that opportune time to hit him upside the head with a struggle bat.

"Ow- Why are there so many bats in one area?!" Riku exclaimed as he tried to defend himself from being pelted by multiple struggle bats.

"Well- and this is just a guess," Lila said before ducking away from a blow. "but I'd say- it could be because of the struggle tournament they're going to be holding soon."

Well, that explained why there were so many of them and why they weren't any good. Still, it was a challenge to deal with so many and not go fully out on them. Were the Heartless counting on that? Was that why they were possessing such weak vessels?

"There are too many of them! Let's retreat for now!" Riku advised and, in preparation for Lila's stubbornness, grabbed her by the wrist and started dragging her behind him, with Pluto quickly following after their trail. They ducked through the many twists and turns of Twilight Town with Lila struggling to keep up with him, and after making sure they weren't being followed, Riku finally stopped in his tracks. Taking advantage of Riku's momentary distraction, Lila managed to jerk away her wrist before leaning over to catch her breathe.

"What on earth was that?" Riku asked. "It's like the whole town's gone nuts."

"I've never... seen Possessors act... like that before," Lila explained breathlessly. "Usually... they possess inanimate objects... not people."

She was right. Heartless, even on a Pureblood level, acted purely on instinct and were often too stupid or incapable to possess beings with hearts, so why were they suddenly able to now? And how come they weren't just taking their victims' hearts instead of possessing their bodies? This shouldn't have been possible... Then again, he was one to talk, since he had experience being possessed by Ansem, the worst of all Heartless. Suddenly, Lila turned towards him with an agitated scowl.

"This is all your fault!" she yelled after finally managing to catch her breathe.

"My fault?" Riku blinked. "How is any of this my fault!?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet? All of the townspeople are controlled by Possessors, Heartless that, until recently, made up a Massive Possessor, the one _you_ destroyed," she explained angrily. "If you didn't attack that Massive Possessor and just listened to me in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"You can't prove that," he defended. "Besides, I'm not the one that puts everyone at risk by recklessly charging off blindly at the enemy." Lila scoffed at his accusation with an affronted scowl.

"I am _not_ reckless!"

"You are if you're not armed!"

"I'm armed!" Riku crossed his arms and gave her a sarcastic look.

"A struggle bat and a pair of fists are hardly going to be able to defeat the Heartless."

"It's better than sitting by and doing nothing!" she argued back. "Unlike you, I was going to fight them by using my head instead of my macho bravado!"

"That means nothing if you don't actually have the skills or strength to back it up! What if something happened to you? Who would look for your family then?! One stupid mistake like that and you'll end up costing your life and theirs! And since Yen Sid can't find them, you might already have!" One look from Lila was all it took for Riku to realize his mistake. "Wait, Lila! I didn't mean-!"

" _Screw_ you, Riku..." she glowered icily, her expression torn between hurt and anger. He wasn't sure if she was going to hurt him or burst into tears. Instead, she turned in the opposite direction and stormed off, and this time he let her.

* * *

Hot tears of frustration welled up in the corners of Lila's eyes, threatening to break free. Riku's words had cut her deep, deeper than he probably realized. They played over and over inside her head, like a broken record that couldn't jump over the scratch. Hearing Yen Sid say he was unable to locate her family had been a major blow. The fact that she had been counting on Yen Sid didn't help, especially when deep down she knew it might've been a long shot, but it didn't make the let down any easier to bear.

 _What gave him the right to say any of that?! He doesn't know anything about me or my family!_... _I should've said that to him. That would've shut him up. Damn it! Why do I always think of my comebacks five minutes after I have the conversation?_ Lila shoved her hands into her coat, her fingers running absentmindedly into the pockets before they encased themselves around a familiar piece of medal. Reluctantly, she pulled it out and swore.

"Argh! Damn it! This stupid thing was in here the whole time!?" Lila cursed out loud. So much could've been avoided if she'd remembered where she put her stuff. So stupid. Why was her memory so horrible? Why couldn't she just focus and remember when it was important? _Stupid! STUPID! Why?! Why... am I so useless?_

"Go away, Riku. I don't want to talk," she growled to the footsteps behind her, expecting a tall, brooding teenage boy, but was instead greeted by a dopey yellow dog. "Oh... Hey, Pluto." Lila leaned down to scratch him between the ears. "Riku's not following you, is he?" she inquired with a slight frown, as if she expected an answer. Pluto's head tilted slightly before staring up at her with a slight whimper and big puppy-dog eyes.

"I guess you think I'm acting stupid and reckless too, huh? Is that why you're here?" she scoffed bitterly, but all she received was silence and small lick. "Well, I guess you can stick around." She gave his head a good pat, feeling her stress slowly ebb away, and continued to do so until she gradually felt herself calm down.

As much as Lila hated to admit it, Riku was right, in more ways than one. She had all of this knowledge about keyblades and how to fight the Heartless, but it was absolutely worthless because she didn't know how to fight. It wasn't fair. Things should have never turned out like this. It was one thing if it was happening to her personally, but her family didn't deserve to get mixed up in this mess, her wish... And Riku certainly didn't deserve the amount of crap she was giving him for it. He had enough on his plate to deal with other than her stupid drama.

Giving Pluto one final scratch, Lila stood up again with a sigh. _Ugh, I can't believe I did the same thing Riku did earlier by storming off. Twice. God, I'm as emotionally screwed up as Riku, and that's saying something._

That thought alone made her think back on everything and reconsider her previous decisions. The more that she thought about it, the more she realized how rude and ungrateful she'd been towards Riku. From another person's point of view, Lila figured they would've interpreted her actions probably reckless, and while the things she did was in order to look out for everyone's best interest, she had done it most of the time with no weapon, no explanation, and no prior training. While Riku wasn't entirely in the right in what he said and did, she didn't have the greatest of communication skills either. _Maybe I should go back and apologize..._

Suddenly, the air began to take on a sinister aura as Pluto's hairs stood on edge before a Massive Possessor appeared out of thin air. Lila quickly readied her weapon and spun the handle quickly before she took aim and shot a white hot beam straight through the Heartless. Rather than disappearing, its body split off into eight tiny black Possessors that quickly began to swarm around me.

 _There are only eight? Then... there's no way one Massive Possessor could take over an entire town. That means Riku..._ Lila felt the pull of deep thought before shaking her head. _Nope. There's no time to be thinking about that right now. Right now, I need to focus._ Clutching the Cid Cannon Mach 5 towards her chest, her mind began to formulate a plan.

"Okay, there are eight of them and only two of us..." Lila observed aloud. "I've got about four more shots left on this thing before it has to recharge again for ten seconds..." She watched Pluto charge towards one cloud with his tangible aura and knock it into two others, disorienting them for a couple of seconds before they started floating towards Pluto instead. "Pluto, corral some of them into that corner!"

"Ruff!" Pluto barked in what she could only guess as confirmation, knocking the split off cluster towards the street corner as Lila ran from a few Possessors that ventured too close for her tastes. He had managed to gather three of them there before she began to wildly spin the handle crank of her cannon.

"Eat sunlight, ghost balls!" She shouted, the fiery blast aimed towards the cluster leaving nothing behind except wisps of black smoke. _Three more shots..._ Lila counted as Pluto gathered another two Heartless towards the corner. She fired. Two more shots. Only three Heartless left. However, these Possessors were too far away from each other for Pluto to control their direction. They only seemed to gather closely together if they wanted to get the jump on their prey. Knowing it would be too sweet of a target, Lila moved closer to Pluto and waited for the Heartless to be lured towards the collected brightness of their hearts.

It worked, but a little too well as one of the Possessors jumped too quickly and made her shot for its group miss. Lila cursed lowly at her failure as the Heartless began to creep up her shoulder and spread its mist over her arm, sapping away at her strength. Knowing that Possessors didn't have a good hold on fast moving targets, Lila anxiously began to jerk her arm away and managed to charge up the last shot as the whole group decided to pounce on her. The final light managed to take out all but one of them. Gratefully, the straggler didn't last long since Pluto decided to take care of himself as he collided with the mist multiple times with his protective aura before the Possessor finally evaporated into smoke.

Lowering her arm, Lila looked towards Pluto with a slight smile and renewed confidence.

"Good boy, Pluto. Now let's head back. We can't let Riku have all the fun."

* * *

After Pluto ran after Lila, Riku found himself alone with his thoughts in the dark brick alley until the shadows began to work their way back to him. Gratefully, they were Heartless and not possessed people, and without Lila and Pluto, Riku now could focus more on the enemy and less on worrying for their safety. It was the only plus side to being alone. However with every action and fluid strike he used against the Heartless, his mind always brought him back to his earlier conversation with Lila. Her hurt expression haunted him. It seemed like every time he tried to undo the hurt he'd caused, he only ended up making things worse. He gripped his falchion sword tightly in his hand and took out his frustration on the Heartless.

Why did he care? He'd only known her for a day, and since then, all that he had learned was that Lila was a brash, hot-headed, and unpredictable girl. How was following her around supposed to help him rediscover how to use his keyblade? He still didn't understand why she, out of all people, had the capability of wielding a keyblade. His head hurt just thinking about it. Feeling a building headache come on, Riku continued doing what he did best and continued to fight the Heartless and tried to repress his inner conflict.

He could take care of this all by himself, and he would do it by his strength and his alone. Alone... That's right. He had always been alone. Whether it was with his family or his group of friends, he felt like no one ever understood how he felt. Everyone had a different way of seeing him, whether it was the cool, aloof leader of the islander kids or the picturesque role model that made him out to be the perfect son. It was just that none of the images were the real him.

 ** _When it comes down to it, you can't rely on anyone but yourself..._** his thoughts whispered, betraying him to his darker emotions. **_Relying on others is weakness... Friends are weakness..._**

 _That's not true! The King counts on me! He trusts me!_ Riku shook his head at his inner turmoil and tried to focus back on the fight, but the dark thoughts began to persist.

 ** _Trust is hard to build and easy to destroy... You left behind your home for your selfish desires and betrayed your closest friends. You couldn't even get Lila to stick around long enough. What makes you think that the King will be any different?_** The King had always been there for him ever since they escaped the Realm of Darkness. He had trained with him and opened up his home to him when he had no place to go. Despite his friend's kindness, it didn't change the fact that Riku was imposing on a world he didn't belong to. He was a charity case, a dark pariah that had been cast away by the Realm of Light because of his foolish actions. A burden.

_No... that's... The King wouldn't..._

**_The King wanted you to observe Lila, and you can't even do that right..._** The thoughts seemed to crawl up his spine and claw at the inside of his head, their dark tendrils wrapping around his mind like they wanted to suffocate and extinguish the life out of him. His hands began to shake as a cold familiar feeling began to run over him, but he stood steadfast and tried to distract himself with the satisfaction of defeating the Possessors. Unfortunately, only more seemed to show up, its body splitting off into multiple Possessor Heartless that quickly began to gather around him. That seemed to be the final nail in the coffin. _  
_

Lila was right. It was all his fault. Surrounded by Possessors, Riku was trapped and could do nothing but let them painfully drain the rest of his life away as he struggled in vain.

 **SHRRRRRROOOOO!** A fierce blast scorched across the hoard, making them disintegrate into clusters of black smoke. Riku cried out and instinctively flinched at the bright light, a slight burning sensation spreading all over his skin. The light burned him, a creature of the dark, and yet it felt strangely warm. Beyond the light and curling smoke, he spied a figure with iconic curly hair.

_Lila..._

"You okay?" Lila asked him as she helped him get back onto his feet. Okay was the last thing he was feeling, but he nodded anyways. All he kept thinking was how strangely relieved he was to see her.

 _She came back... After everything I had said, she came back! Why? I don't understand..._ he asked himself, wondering if she came back because she was worried about him. His heart warmed at the thought of it, however he immediately began to discredit that theory in order to not get his hopes up. Maybe she didn't come back for him. Maybe she was just trying to find the Gummi Ship so she could return to Traverse Town and search on her own. Keeping that thought in mind, he turned away and walked back towards the courtyard to try and fix his mistakes he had cost Twilight Town. However, right as he turned to walk back from where he came, he felt a small hand grab onto his wrist and stop him in place.

"Riku, wait! I..." Lila called out before dropping his hand, shyly looking down at her feet and folding hands. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I blindly charge into things, and that I act like I know everything! And... I'm sorry for blaming you. I was just angry at things that weren't your fault, and it wasn't fair of me to take it out on you."

Riku let out a startled gasp, his eyes wide as he felt his jaw go slack. He had expected a lot of things, but her apologizing was not one of them. _She came back... to apologize to me?_ he thought before his brain caught up with the rest of him.

"No, you were right. I should've listened to you instead of ignoring your advice," he shook his head, letting out a strained voice as he struggled to say the words. "I'm not... I'm not really good at this sort of thing."

"Clearly," she tilted her head jokingly with a smug expression. "I mean, I'm the one who should apologize, and here you are, saying you're sorry when I'm the one who's been acting like, how my friend Matt would put it, 'a major, stuck up bitch' since we started out." Startled by her sudden use of profanity, Riku let out an awkward cough.

"Th-That seems to be a little harsh."

"You're not disagreeing though," she added coyly. Her jovial mood seemed to be contagious. Riku bit down on corner of his mouth, trying to let the question die off and not say something stupid again. How could she be so upbeat, after everything he had said? After everything that had happened to her?

"Honestly though, I'm kind of terrible at dealing with people," he continued, changing the subject. "I have a small circle of friends for a reason, and I'm sure even they barely tolerate me now... And now all these Heartless are running loose, and it's all my fault because I didn't listen."

"Yeah... No!" Lila agreed before she caught herself. "I mean, yes, you didn't listen, but that's not all of it. A Massive Possessor only creates eight Possessors if its killed. There's no way that all of them could've possessed that many people."

"It's not your fault, Riku," she spelled it out for him, plain and simple. A small smile stretched on his face.

"That's a relief..." Riku thought out loud, his eyes softening. His heart felt lighter from that statement. At least the damage he had caused was minimal, hardly irreparable. It certainly wasn't cause for an entire town to go under, but that still begged the question: where were all the Possessors coming from?

"There's no way that mindless Purebloods like Possessors would be smart enough or able to possess people," he frowned, but not before adding, "at least, not on their own. They have to have some sort of larger Heartless or person running the show."

"That makes sense," Lila nodded. "It would also explain why they've been acting so weird." Before they could plan further, the sound of slow moving footsteps dragged across the pavement nearby. Two sets of shadows illuminated the person, revealing a young blonde woman with baby blue eyes.

"Casey..." Lila gasped, holding her hands up to her mouth.

"You know her?" Riku exclaimed.

"I met her earlier, the last time we were here. She gave me directions to Sunset Station..." Lila trailed off sadly before sharply stating, "We have to do something! Who knows how long these people have been possessed?"

"Wait!" Riku stopped her, holding out an arm. "I know you're concerned for her, but let's see where she's going first. Until we figure out how to get rid of the Possessors without hurting everyone, I'm afraid we can't do anything for her... yet." Lila turned her eyes downcast, but complied with his wishes. After watching and carefully following the woman out of sight, it wasn't long before his theory began to reap results.

"For mindless people, they sure seem to be going somewhere," Riku observed as they watched Casey join a crowd of people that began to march into the tunnel system.

"Why are they heading towards the subway tunnels? I thought they were supposed to be closed down," Lila questioned, trying to hold onto Pluto's collar to keep him from taking off. Riku turned his gaze towards the entrance of Gate Five, which was luckily unused.

"Only one way to find out."


	10. Tunnel Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila and Riku find the boss and have to deal with a Possessor on steroids. Lila also discovers that fighting is hard.

**Background Soundtracks  
****The Heartless Has Come by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix  
Dance to the Death by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix**  
**Critical Phase by Yuki Kajiura**  
 **Let the Stars Fall Down by Yuki Kajiura**

Entering the subway tunnel was easy. It was fighting in it that was the problem. In Lila's haste to return to the Twilight tunnels, she had forgotten how cramped and claustrophobic everything was down here. It made it harder to dodge enemy attacks and to avoid ambushes, but it did give them one advantage though: the Heartless couldn't fly out of range. Thinking of using this to our advantage, she pulled Riku aside.

"Let me blast the first ones that show up, then you and Pluto can come in and finish off the stragglers that I missed or weakened," she suggested, tapping the cannon at her hip. "My weapon has a longer range and needs time to charge, so with your quick combos, I think we could defeat them a lot more efficiently." After a brief moment of consideration, Riku gave a small nod.

"Alright. Let's give it a shot." After the whole ordeal they'd had earlier, they'd decided to give teamwork a test run, and it worked, surprisingly. As soon as they were low enough into the tunnels, the Heartless began showing up left and right, but they were hardly a problem anymore. Directions, Lila and Riku found, weren't much of a problem either, since the only thing they had to keep in mind was to keep going down, since all they did when they had arrived was climb up the slopes. While some of the abandoned turnarounds made the subway maze a little confusing, it didn't eliminate the one simple fact that the darkest place was at the bottom, and shadows lurked in dark places, so what better place to look for a Heartless than at the bottom of a subway tunnel?

Making a mental note of the number of entrances they passed, now passing Entrance 2, Lila noticed that beams of sunlight were becoming harder to find. It was as if the further they went down, the more bleak the pathway began to look. The gateways seemed to ominously countdown until the group reached their inevitable demise. Occasionally though the area would have enough sun for little plants to poke their heads out of the brick and sandstone, as if to give some hope to those passing through the darkened tunnels. A soft wind blew in through the air vents, making the petals of one strain of wildflowers flutter in the breeze and carry the scent into the air. The smell filled Lila with a sense of nostalgia, recalling a memory she had long since forgotten.

_"Mommy, what's that smell?" Lila had asked her, catching the strong, aromatic smell of flowers._

_"Those are the lilies, sweetie," said her mother as she patted down the soil for a freshly planted flowerbed._

_"Why are they pink? I thought lilies were supposed to be white." Her mother wiped her forehead against her wrist, smudging bits of dirt and swiping away fly-away hairs that had fallen out of her large hair-clip._

_"Oh no, there are all kinds of flowers, even in their own groups," she explained as her hand tenderly touched the petals. "These are called Stargazers."_

_"Wow... They're so pretty!" Lila exclaimed before leaning in to give them another whiff. "And they smell so sweet."_

_"Not as sweet as you, my silly lily," she teased as she held her close and tickled her stomach.  
_

The image of her wasn't very clear other than that, Lila's impression of the memory coming from when she was very young, probably around four or five, but the world seemed to be colored with bright colors as if she had spilled cans of paint and finger-painted them in. She hummed fondly at the warm feeling the memory gave her before she heard a brief warbling in her ears and noticed Riku was looking expectantly at her.

"I'm sorry- what?"

"I said 'Be on your guard,'" Riku repeated, effectively snapping her out of her trip down memory lane. "This area is covered with the scent of darkness, so be ready and pay attention."

"O-Oh right! Sure thing!" Lila added fiercely, though her tone was uncertain. While Riku focused on the task at hand, she found herself noticing the area had more of a sinister aura than it'd had moments ago. The area itself didn't look any different, but she couldn't shake off the strange feeling that she was being watched. Finally, the group stopped near the bottom of the subway turnaround. A few more paces to the right and they could have boarded their Gummi ship, but it was blocked by the large crowd of people that gathered in the underground.

Hearing Pluto's whimpers next to her, Lila placed a finger to her lips and hushed him as she grasped onto his collar, trying to keep his impatient fidgeting under control. After scanning the area, the gamer recognized the large Heartless in the center to be a Shadow Stalker, though she would have mistook it for a Darkball if it wasn't for the chains. That certainly explained the vast amount of Possessor Heartless in the area, since it was known to summon other Possessors. Lila couldn't help but let out an aggravated hiss at the creature. She could tell by the sheer size of it that it was going to be hard to beat.

"Riku, we have to kill this thing fast, or it will be that much harder to kill later," she urged him before his face whirled towards her, his expression changed instantly from ready to concerned.

"What makes you say that?" he asked cautiously.

"Because I've dealt with these things before. It's a Shadow Stalker. It's like a Possessor on steroids. They're weak in this form, but they're hella nasty if you don't get 'em while they're down." His eyebrow arched in surprise. She could tell from the once over he gave her that he was not totally sold that she had fought a day in her life, which wasn't completely unwarranted since technically she hadn't. Regardless, Lila urged him. "Just trust me on this! I know what I'm talking about." After trying to find some deeper truth in her determined stare, he turned away and readied his sword.

The large Heartless hovered to and fro in the center of the turnaround, letting the people encircle it like they were about to join hands and be sacrificed to the creature. Any stragglers that weren't controlled by the Heartless were soon caught quickly afterwards and possessed by the Possessors that the Shadow Stalker spawned.

"It looks almost like an alien queen about to feed her children," Lila wrinkled her nose in disgust, expecting the Shadow Stalker to consume the massive crowd of people. However, both the Heartless and the possessed townsfolk did nothing but stand there.

"Why isn't it consuming any of their hearts? It's just sitting there," Riku wondered aloud, confused why the Heartless wasn't acting on impulse. Lila agreed with him, wondering if this was the true boss or just another pawn. It wasn't until moments later that she discovered the real reason it hadn't done anything as the Shadow Stalker turned and looked at them knowingly. It was to lure them down here, with the townspeople as the bait. Walls made up of dark energy suddenly sprouted up behind them, created a large force field in the turnaround, effectively blocking the exits and ensnaring them inside its trap.

Riku narrowed his eyes. "Should've guessed this was a trap," he stated before shifting his feet into a defensive battle stance. After realizing holding onto Pluto was no longer necessary, his thrashing becoming more violent as the tension rose in the air, Lila quickly let go and started charging up her machine. The Shadow Stalker erratically jerked and shook, the rattling of its chains seeming to stir it excitedly into a frenzy. The townsfolk around it suddenly did an about-face and went on the offensive as they marched towards us.

"Damn it. Not again," Lila growled as her hand squeezed her weapon in irritation. Riku begrudgingly brought down his blade with a grimace, sharing her frustration. They hated that they had to fight the townsfolk again. The Shadow Stalker stole them in order to lure the group down here, and now it was using them as foot-soldiers. They didn't deserve this. If only there was a way of separating them from the Possessors. There just had to be!

Desperately trying to think of ideas, Lila's gaze flitted to the metal box she clutched tightly in her hand, to Riku and back again, and then inspiration came. Putting everything into a hunch, Lila aimed her cannon exactly like she had done multiple times before and fired a large blast at the crowd. A brief moment of satisfaction and horror filled her chest as she anxiously watched people fall down right and left like mosquitoes hit with bug spray, but it was soon replaced by reassurance as black clouds of Heartless evaporated into thin air. Finally, they was getting promising results.

"Oh thank god that worked," Lila sighed in relief, like a ton of bricks had been knocked off her shoulders. "That would've sucked if it had backfired." Riku turned to give her an incredulous look.

"You mean you fired your cannon at innocent people and just hoped for the best?!" Riku exclaimed.

"Hey! It didn't kill you when I used it on you, did it? You're fine! Besides, it was better than doing nothing," she defended, anxiously trying to press towards the present situation. "Anyways, focus on getting the people to safety. I'll deal with big, bad, and ugly over here." Riku instantly shook his head.

"No way. You can't handle this thing alone."

"Can _you_ get rid of Possessors without hurting people?" Lila gestured frantically. "Besides, I can't carry unconscious people. I'm not as strong as you, but I can at least hold it off. Just trust me on this, okay? I'll be fine, and besides, I've got Pluto. Now GO!" She urged him, sounding more confident than she felt. Truth is, Lila was absolutely terrified. She had never fought something this big on her own.

_I can handle this... I can handle this..._ She told herself as she took a deep breathe and aimed her weapon. _It's just like the video-games... It can't hurt you unless it possesses something, and what is there to possess in an empty subway tunnel?_

Apparently, more than she thought. Having only played the games, she had underestimated the tenacity of her enemy. Not wanting it to make the first move, she'd nervously fired blasts at the Shadow Stalker, sending it scuttling into the ceiling, where it would possess the ceiling lights and send blasts of blue energy raining down on her.

By a stroke of luck, she managed to avoid those shots by having stood next to the walls, since the lights were only in center of the ceiling. After it finished, she fired a blast of her own and knocked the Heartless back out into the open. She wanted to move closer and get a more direct hit, but she noticed Riku wasn't done escorting the people to safety, so she continued to focus only on hitting her target when it wandered too close.

Lila had to keep reminding herself that she wasn't trying to go all out against this thing, that she was just buying time until Riku got everyone out of the way, but it was hard. The large boss made her a bit trigger happy in how it would erratically jerk about and shake, dodging some of her nervous blasts with its quick, unpredictable movement. Pluto was, surprisingly, a great help in distracting it and keeping it from jumping into the ceiling again. He would chase it around, occasionally leaping up in the air and biting one of its chains to pull it back down and make it easier to shoot. Her light cannon was an useful weapon, but with the kick it gave, its blasts weren't very clean when it didn't have any sights to help angle the shots.

_So far, so good..._ Lila tried to think positively before the Heartless suddenly ducked and flattened itself into the floor. _Crap! I forgot that it did that!_ The Heartless crept towards her right as she decided to bolt to the other side of the room, the dark shadow blob on the ground following behind her before it stopped below her feet and shot anemone like tendrils around her. Managing a small jump at the last second, it only managed to snag her foot, but that was enough.

A sharp pain dowsed her foot in what felt like hot, tiny needles as Lila frantically stomped and kicked the Heartless with her other foot before it spat her back out again. Shaken from her experience, Lila scooted away and tried to get back onto her feet as the barrier fell. Pluto took this opportunity to build up his aura and charged towards the Heartless, smashing it into one of the walls. Disoriented, Lila stumbled backward and blindly shot at the ceiling, blowing out the bulbs of the subway lights and causing sparks of fire and light to rain down on the Shadow Stalker. It let a out a ghostly shriek of pain before the lights flickered and eventually blinked out, one by one.

Her end of the tunnel was now covered in darkness. Lila couldn't see where the Heartless had run off to, but judging from the softness of the clinking chains and the distant echoes of the tunnels, she could make an educated guess that the Shadow Stalker fled into one of the smaller tunnels. At least it couldn't use the ceiling to attack anymore. Waiting for the ten second recharge, Lila cautiously moved down towards the bottom subway tunnel. In the distance, she could see the faint dimming of lights flickering on and off from the emergency back up generators. Illuminated at the bottom of the tracks was an old subway turn around that was covered in crabgrass and old vines, but there was no sign of the Shadow Stalker. Suddenly, Lila felt something cold grab onto her shoulder. Without hesitation, she whipped around and punched the dark tendril that grasped onto her, sending whatever had attacked her back into the shadows.

"Oww! Jeez! Calm down, Lila! It's me!" eased a male voice. Lila squinted, barely able make out the frame of the figure before she spotted the tell-tale silver hair and lowered her arms.

"Riku!?" She blinked owlishly before shoving him backwards. "God, don't scare me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," he offered before rubbing his shoulder. "Man, you punch hard for a girl."

"I'll take that as a compliment," she spoke dryly before asking, "Is everyone out?"

"Yeah. Pretty much everyone's awake now, so they managed to evacuate after that, since they know the tunnels," he explained before looking down the subway tunnel. "So where did the Heartless go?"

"I don't know. Somewhere down there, I think. Shouldn't be able to get far. There's nothing down there to possess anyways."

"Yeah, nothing but tracks and old subway cars down there," Riku trailed off before they both froze. Wait. What. A low train whistle blew ominously at the bottom of the cavern as two lights flickered on below. The creaking and moving of rusted wheels echoed through the tunnel as the train car began lurch forward.

"Crap!" Lila cursed before they hightailed it out of there. A rogue subway car began gathering speed below as it gradually ground its wheels for a steady uphill charge. The closer it got, the more Lila could see the grim details on it. The train car was now covered with black and purple markings, possessed by the Shadow Stalker, its eyes and teeth the headlights and flat-nose of the subway car.

Its jaws formed at the front the car, chomping wildly at anything it could sink its teeth into. It continued to launch itself up the tunnel before it entered the main room and smashed into one of the railroad buffer stops for the turn around. Using its strength, it used its dark energy to spin a massive whirlwind of dark energy that became stronger with its speed. After unleashing its attack, Riku leapt at it with his sword and smashed the front windshield before it halted to a stop, revealing the other side of the car to have eyes and teeth as well. Linking up its rails with the tunnel behind the duo, sparks flickered and spat from the grinding wheels and rusty rails as the Heartless geared up to charge forward again. Trapped with nowhere to go but up, they were forced to run until they could somehow manage to duck into a drop off tunnel or risk being shoved all the way there by the Heartless. Unfortunately, even with a nap, Lila was still a much slower runner than Riku and Pluto, and soon felt the Stalker subway car collide into her back.

Lila let out a panicked cry as the Heartless took a sizeable bite out of her strength. At this point, the gamer was only hanging on from sheer willpower before the car collided into Riku and Pluto as well. Sandwiched between Riku, Pluto, and a Heartless, the ache in her side grew from painful to agonizing. She could scarcely move, one of her arms pinned uncomfortably behind Riku's back as she weakly turned and aimed her cannon in her free hand and shot a final blast right into the Heartless's face, breaking the other windshield as they launched out of the subway transit out into the open. The kick-back of the weapon was so strong that it fell out of her hands onto the tracks. The Shadow Stalker flew out of the shambled train car before it gradually rolled to a hault, but not before they were all flung out into the open with it. After kissing the pavement multiple times, Lila let out a long moan as she tried to get up. Everything hurt, but nothing was broken until she blindly felt around for her weapon and saw it smashed to bits yards away by the train tracks, crushed by the weight of the train car.

The Shadow Stalker hovered briefly overhead as if to give them a moment to pray to their god before dropping back into the ground. Knowing what came next, Lila started running, half crawling away, before she was inevitably caught and trapped inside the shadowy prison. An enormous pressure began building in Lila's chest as it engulfed her. The sound of chewing and cutting of flesh causing her to frantically kick and flail inside the beast to no avail. Everything was screaming. Her body, her voice, the shadows. She could even hear Riku calling out her name, along with feeling something beating against the prison from the outside, but it was muffled by the dark energy inside the Shadow Stalker. Left helpless and weapon-less, she could scarcely breathe as Lila desperately flailed against her captor. Images of her home being devoured, her family swallowed up by the darkness, and eventually turning into Heartless left her with a familiar sense of failure and desperation.

_"Lila, you act like you've got blinders on," complained Kurami as she tried to explain the Greek epic and Marvel superhero comparison essay she was helping her write. "You're not seeing the big picture here. The best part of the story to focus on is the hero's ordeal."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because no matter how far they've fallen, the hero always gets back up to face the challenge head on, like Peter Parker as Spiderman. Spiderman always had to deal with super-villains as well as having bad press for being a vigilante, but despite being public enemy number one, he always fought for what was right despite that everyone hated him, and always got back up no matter how many people put him down. That's what makes the hero so relatable. Spiderman may do fantastic feats, but under the mask, he's still awkward, flawed Peter Parker, a regular guy just trying to make it from one day to the next. Life always likes to throw problems your way, but no matter how bad it gets, you always get back up and make it through, otherwise the story ends."_

_"I can see dramaturgy was the way to go for you," Lila smirked at her sister, who sniffed dramatically and straightened her posture._

_"Well, if I want to make it as an actress, I have to study hard," she sniffed before hitting her with a book. "And that means you should too!"_

_"Okay,_ MOM _!" Lila teased her before opening up her workbook. "So explain to me how anti-heroes and anti-villains aren't the same thing again."_

Lila thought reliving this memory in her last moments as odd. After all, Ami helping her with her homework was not an unusual occurrence. Despite that she was older than her, Ami had always sat down and helped her when she didn't get something. She didn't yell when she got frustrated and made sure that her older sister stayed on track. Ami was always there for her, no matter what.

But like Spiderman, Kurami was still just a person under her mask of kindness. If she went through the hardships Lila was facing now, would she be able to do it alone? Lila always tried to talk a big game by trying to act like the older sister for her, but the truth is that Kurami was always the one that stepped up to face the challenge. Now, she needed to step up and be the big sister Kurami deserved. She needed to be there for her, and dying inside of a Heartless was not the way of doing that. I may not be one the heroes she always idolized, but there was one thing she did know: her story would not end here.

_The story... the story can't end here..._ Lila thought. _It... it can't end like this! I won't let it end like this!_

A rush of energy started to build in her chest before it enveloped her in a slowly building light. Suddenly, a bright flash blasted the Shadow Stalker open like a popped balloon before it weakly slithered away. In Lila's hand was a strange sword with a winged fleur de lis hilt and a six star shaped flower that was attached to the edge of the blade like the teeth of a key. Attached to the hilt was a long chain that had a smaller fleur de lis charm connected at the bottom.

"That's a..." Riku gaped.

"...Keyblade." Lila finished as she held up the sword to examine it with shock and awe. It was coated with blue and gold metal, the flower petals being the only color of pink on the whole keyblade. The name Stargazer suddenly filled her head as a bright energy coursed through her that she could feel from her chest all the way to the edge of her fingertips. Filled with renewed strength and purpose, Lila smirked and leapt towards the Shadow Stalker with a loud battle cry. She began swinging wildly, beating fiercely at the Shadow Stalker like it was a pinata. Small sparks shaped like stars flung off its body as old muscles and joints in Lila's arms and shoulders began stretching and clicking together like clockwork as muscle memory began to take over.

While her spirit didn't deter, her arms were beginning to tire, but Lila didn't care. If she could kill this thing quickly enough, it wouldn't be able to use its last resort and make them fight it a second time. Lila could do nothing but hope that this was the case as she unleashed her unrelenting fury upon the chained Heartless. To keep it from escaping, Pluto bit down on the chains and pulled as she delivered blow after blow until she couldn't anymore. After seeing her strikes become slower, Riku leapt into action and continued where she'd left off, not wanting to get caught up in the berserk assault as Lila stopped to search for her only Hi-Potion and took a long swig, feeling the effects almost instantly as the stings of pain numbed to a dull ache. Lila was about to join in again, but it didn't seem to be necessary as Riku efficiently delivered fast and sudden blows that would have knocked most tanks of their feet. It wasn't long afterwards that the Heartless let out a final cry and began to quake in pain. To Lila's horror, Riku lowered his sword, sensing that the battle was done, but he was wrong. Dead wrong.

"No, Riku, hurry! Kill it! Kill it NOW! It's not done!" she cried out as the Heartless screeched in pain. Noticing her urgency, Riku quickly flew forward with a sudden dash, but when his sword lodged itself into a sudden force field, Lila knew it was already too late. Rather than disappear into smoke, the Shadow Stalker oozed a blue aura and had shrouded itself in a cloak of shadows and black thorns, obscuring it from view. After a couple seconds of hovering in mid-air, the thorny nest pulsed, like it had a heartbeat, before a creature burst forth like a butterfly busting out of its cocoon, and much like a butterfly, the metamorphosis gave the Heartless a new appearance. Its new form resembled a wolf-like beast with broken chains on its manacled wrists and a long flowing orange mane. Green thorns snaked up its chain-bound legs and torso, its menacing appearance accented with its sharp jagged teeth and long orange claws. This was its true form. Dark Thorn.

"Well crap." Lila deadpanned. She hated it when she was right.


	11. Changing Tides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila FINALLY gets a keyblade and the group is in the second half of the boss fight against the Shadow Stalker/Dark Thorn, but will it be enough? Also, some guest appearances for possible future storylines!

**Background Soundtracks  
****Across the Sea by the Sweeplings  
Always on My Mind by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix  
We Have to Defeat it by Yuki Kajiura  
Sea and Sand by Pasquale Riviezzo**  
**Swordland Theme by Yuki Kajiura**

_"Here is where we decide,_  
_By the setting sun and rising tide,_  
_If we stay and fade or test our reach_  
_Darling won't you just come with me_ _..."_ **_  
_ **

The smell of sea and sand mixed in the air as the crushing of sand gave away beneath her feet as Kairi sat in her usual spot on top of her favorite tree. The overhanging tree didn't bear any of its usual fruit yet, but it had white and yellow flowers hanging from the top of the tropical leaves. The ocean below lapped at the small island, her overhanging legs about a couple feet away from the water's edge as she could feel little droplets of salt water spray onto her ankles. The tide was coming in, meaning it was the perfect time to set sail.

Down by the docks, she spotted her friend Goofy carrying a dangerously unbalanced stack of supplies to bring onto the raft they had built before tripping over a seashell. Her other friend, Donald, then started yelling angrily about Goofy's clumsiness, and the girl couldn't help but let out a small giggle at Donald's comedic flailing. After he had a couple of seconds to cool off, she watched her new companions regather the fallen materials before she felt her gaze drift back to the horizon. A soft wind blew through her auburn hair, which had become darker and a little longer since she'd had her last big adventure. Now it seemed she was preparing for another one.

_"I just can't wait, once we set sail. It'll be great..."_

She could still remember saying those words. How naive she was back then, thinking it would all be so easy. After everything that had happened to them, she couldn't help but think about what could have gone different. What if she had taken off with Sora or what if they all had left the night before, rather than gathering all those extra supplies and racing around the island? Would have things gone better? Worse? She had gone over all the details in her mind, but she was still unable to figure out what went wrong. Had it been something she had done, or something she had failed to do? Was it because she wanted to leave with Sora instead of Riku? Had he overheard and that was what had driven him away? Was it her fault?

_I wonder if Sora's ever had thoughts like this,_ Kairi thought before shaking her head. _Probably not. He's got a one-track mind. He always likes to keep moving forward, rather than being stuck in the past..._ Thinking about this, she failed to notice the self-same, spiky-haired boy walking across the boardwalk behind her.

"Donald says the boat will be seaworthy in a just a little while," said Sora before he jumped up and joined her, sitting on his side of the tree. Noticing her uncharacteristic silence, he asked,"You okay, Kairi?" She paused for a moment, thinking about letting everything out, before she resigned with a sigh.

"It's just not the same without all three of us here..." Kairi spoke, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah... I was thinking the same thing," Sora trailed off wistfully, swinging his legs back and forth. It wasn't that long ago that they had returned, having been only been gone a couple of weeks, but it felt like years since she and her best friends had hung out at their usual spot beneath the paopu tree. As much as she didn't like to think about it, she had changed a lot since the three of them had been together. After everything they had been through, would Riku still like to be around her when she'd changed so much in the past couple of months?

For a moment, the couple could almost see their other friend leaning up against the tree with them, his arms crossed over his chest and silver hair glinting in the sunlight before the image faded away like the ebbing of the tide against the sand beds.

* * *

Pushed up against the wall, Riku and Lila were beyond exhausted. Sweat was starting to coat the back of their clothes and breathing was started to become difficult. While Lila had finally managed to summon her keyblade, it didn't make up for her obvious lack of strength and stamina to wield it properly, though she fought hard to prove him otherwise. She appeared to barely have the energy to stand, but she put all of her efforts into blocking against attacks, and Riku couldn't help but admire her passion. She certainly was a trooper, he had to give her that.

The Shadow Stalker's second form -what Lila called "Dark Thorn"- was almost more troublesome than the first. The Heartless knew it was weak from the last battle, so it decided to put all of its efforts into guerilla warfare by turning invisible and attacking from the shadows. It was hard to find and even worse to predict, the Heartless having become more agile and erratic without its chains, almost like a wild beast breaking out of its cage. The only plus side was that the creature had somehow lost its ability to possess inanimate objects, but it made up for it by summoning weaker Possessors to throw at them as a deterrent if it was spotted and backed into a corner.

"This is getting ridiculous. How are we supposed to hit it if we can't see it?" Riku grumbled to himself. It had a wide area to run around in, so it didn't have a lot of places to hide. Normally he would have been able to sense where the higher concentration of darkness was, but Twilight Town's closeness to the darkness still put a major damper on his nose. It was like everything was diluted down, all the smells blending and swimming in a foggy abyss.

"Try looking for a shadow. It's invisible, but it's not gone," Lila advised before she was pushed back by the swipe of Dark Thorn's claws. Using the attack to his advantage, Riku quickly joined Lila and tried to hit the creature from the other side until it leaped out of reach and attacked from behind. This fight was dragging on longer than it should have been. Before he had trained with the King, Riku normally would have been able to take down a Heartless like this without any issues, so why was it a problem now? Yen Sid had said it was an imbalance within himself that blocked his ability to wield a keyblade. Was it because his heart was weak? Was his own power so insignificant or... was it because he had been holding himself back?

**_Tap into your true power... unlock your true potential. You know it is the only way..._ **

_No! I promised myself that I would never use darkness again!_ He froze, pushing thoughts to the furthest part of his mind, though that moment of hesitation cost him as Lila's stance broke. The Dark Thorn now had the opportunity to push past her and suddenly, Riku's sword was torn from his grasp and cast aside like tossing a toothpick. It struck the ground far away from his grasp, leaving him open and vulnerable against the beastly Heartless.

* * *

"Hey, Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you..." Kairi paused. "Do you think Riku's okay?"

"Of course he's is. He's _Riku_. He can take on anything," Sora assured her almost instantly. "That guy never backs down from a challenge, and he always manages to win, no matter what. He's willing to do what he thinks needs to be done, no matter what. That's just the kind of guy he is."

"That's what has me worried," Kairi frowned. "Riku is strong, but sometimes he's too reckless and stubborn for his own good."

"Well, then it will be that much easier for us to find him, won't it? He's too stubborn to just disappear," Sora said with a smile. "You know what he said to me the last time we spoke?" Kairi shook her head.

"No. What did he say?"

"He told me to take care of you," Sora stared into her eyes, resting his hand gently on top of hers before giving it a small squeeze. "After everything we had gone through, he shouldn't have been able to trust anybody. Riku thought he had been betrayed by everyone he trusted, and yet he still trusted me enough to make sure you would be safe. That why I think we'll find him again. Underneath all the darkness, I believe that there's a light in him that will never go out, and as long as we keep him in our hearts, I'm sure we'll find him, so don't worry."

"You're probably right..." Kairi smiled as she watched the sunset. "Still, I hope he's okay, wherever he is..."

* * *

Things were quickly taking a turn for the worst. Though he couldn't see it, Riku could feel the creature on him, feeling the claws scratch and push down on his chest. He could sense its hunger, its dark desire to rip him apart and tear open his chest to take his heart. No matter how much he kicked and punched, the Heartless couldn't budge. He just wasn't strong enough.

_**Darkness can make you stronger... darkness can make you whole... You need the darkn-!** _

Suddenly, he felt the intense grip on his chest slacken as the creature's attention turned towards the yellow dog that had his teeth lodged into the Heartless's arm, flickering back to its colorful appearance. Before Riku could process this, the Dark Thorn lurched forward and cried out in agony.

"Leave him alone, you Heartless- _freak_!" Lila yelled as she jumped up and stabbed the creature in the back. The Heartless howled in pain as it tried to shake off the two opponents that had latched onto it, but both of them refused to let go. While it was distracted, Riku took this opportunity to scramble away from the Dark Thorn's iron-clad grip, but right as he did, the Heartless finally managed to grab onto Pluto and fling him across the courtyard. The dog let out a distressed yelp before he crumpled against one of the nearby shops while Lila still struggled to hang on.

"Pluto!" Riku cried out, scrambling over towards the collapsed dog. He wasn't unconscious, but he was clearly out of the fight. Noticing the teenager, Pluto let out a weak whimper and gently licked Riku's hand. "Here you go, boy. Drink up!" While Lila flailed around like what any bystander would describe as some sort of stupid drunk teenager that wanted to play rodeo with a Heartless, Riku gave Pluto his last potion. He couldn't drink it like a person, so Riku just bit the cap off and poured the contents onto the street. Right as Pluto began lapping up the contents was when Lila's grip finally gave out as her hand slipped from the fleur-de-lis hilt and was bucked off the wild Heartless.

Now rid of annoying nuisances, the Dark Thorn turned invisible again and crept towards Lila, who was defenseless due to her weapon still being embedded in the creature's back. Shaking like a leaf, Lila blindly scrambled around on the ground for any kind of weapon before her hand found the pommel of Soul Eater and quickly snatched the falchion sword from the ground. She nervously pointed the bat-wing sword and swatted at the air to keep the beast at bay, but it was only a matter of time before the Heartless got her. Ignoring any pain that he felt, Riku tossed the empty potion away and angrily charged towards the Heartless before he sharply pulled the keyblade out of the Dark Thorn's back, the latter letting out a horrifying shriek.

The keyblade was heavier than his Soul Eater, but the sword had a more energized feel to it. His chest filled with a warm feeling, like he was stronger just from holding it. Not taking a break in his stride, Riku relentlessly tore into the Heartless while Lila stumbled back onto her feet. His strikes, though worn down by weariness and exhaustion, appeared to be more effective as the Heartless suddenly flickered into visibility and stayed that way.

Lila seemed to be having her own fair share of problems, adjusting to the fast strikes and control needed for sudden stops due to her new weapon's light weight and aerodynamic design, but that didn't seem to matter as the Dark Thorn gradually began to become slower and slower with each strike from the keyblade wielders. Pushing themselves to the limit, they both unleashed one final attack and knocked the Dark Thorn down on all fours. The Heartless let out one final wail before it disintegrated into black smoke and vanished. The two teenagers, slightly out of breath, waited until they were completely sure there wasn't a round three with the Heartless before they lowered their weapons.

"Thank GOD, that's over..." Lila cried out in exasperation as Riku leaned on his knees in relief.

* * *

After casually watching the sunset for a few more minutes, Sora and Kairi decided to go and join their friends on the beach.

"Are you sure you still want to come with us? It might be dangerous," Sora asked her as he scratched the back of his head.

"Of course. You didn't think I'd let you go and have all the fun, did you?" Kairi eyed him playfully.

"I just don't want you to get hurt," Sora said as he gave her one of his few serious gazes. "Up until now, I've felt like I've kept my word to take care of you. But if you come with us, I feel like I'd be putting you in danger, like I'd be breaking my promise to Riku." His eyes turned downcast towards the sand, emotionally torn like a rag being pulled in two different directions. Kairi then turned his hand and placed her other on top of his and pulled him forward.

"I'll be safe as long as I'm with you," she urged him. "As long as we stick together, nothing can tear us apart. Friends keep each other safe, no matter what." Her hands squeezed his gently and then, with a small blush, they both pulled awkwardly away. What was left in Sora's palm was the good luck charm Kairi had given him months ago. When they ended up back on the islands after the worlds were restored, he had returned it and since then, she had held onto it for him. It was a little worn, the binding around the shells becoming frayed and loose, but it still held firmly together. He held her gaze and gave her a soft thank you before attaching it to his wallet chain and stuffing it into his pocket.

"Then you're going to need this," he said before pulling out and handing her something he pulled out of his pocket. "I was going to give it to you later, but I figure I might as well give it to you now." In her hands was a small black pouch with strings tied around the back made for a belt loop. "I remember you talking about how you like to collect seashells, so I thought you could have a pouch to carry them. See? You can tied this part around your belt and have it as a pocket."

"Thank you, Sora," she smiled warmly, attaching the bag to her thick, purple belt. "I'll wear it always." After taking one last look at the horizon, they decided to return and help their two friends out. Maybe it was fate or destiny for the way things ended up. Either way, it was up to her and Sora to change it. They were going to find him. They were going to bring Riku back.

* * *

"Oh man, check this out!" Riku turned to see a bright-eyed Lila picking up a pile of coins that glittered on the cobblestone courtyard. "Look at all the munny this thing dropped! I'll definitely be able to afford those repairs now!" she beamed happily, causing Riku to give her a smile of his own. It was nice to think that at least some good came from dealing with the Dark Thorn. Relaying over the previous events, he found himself staring down at Lila's keyblade, which he still gripped in his hands.

"Here. You'll be wanting this back," he said, suddenly feeling self-conscious, tossing the keyblade back towards her. Unfortunately, Lila wasn't as coordinated as he was and ended up being hit by the sword before it dropped to the ground.

"Oww! Hey! Watch where you're aiming that thing!" Lila yelped, rubbing her arm from the blunt sting of metal as the keyblade disappeared into a flash of light.

"It's not my fault that you can't catch," Riku shrugged.

"I just wasn't ready for it, you jerk. Don't be smug about it," she frowned before handing him back Soul Eater. She bashfully twirled a piece of her curly hair and stared at the ground before admitting, "Anyways, thank you... you know, for the save back there..." Not expecting a compliment, Riku shrugged coolly before placing his hands inside his pockets.

"Sure thing."

"You know, despite your moody behavior and my lack of coordination, we seem to make a pretty good team," she folded her arms. "So you want to give this _train-wreck_ a shot?" She jabbed her thumb cheekily at the metal carnage behind her. Riku couldn't help but face-palm at her lame attempt at humor.

"That has to be one of the worst puns I've ever heard, but I guess it could always be worse," Riku stated before he held out his arm and, in an instant, the sword sparked blue, electric sparks before disappearing inside a black and red cloud. "Anyways, it looks like the townsfolk are safe, for now. Better head back to the ship and search for that Howl guy." Lila let out a long, irritating groan.

"Ugh, can't we just call it a day? I'm frickin' exhausted," Lila whined, stretching her arms out. Riku was about to protest until he noticed both Pluto and Lila were worn out, and since he was all out of potions, Riku suddenly felt the full weight of his exhaustion as well.

"Well... I guess taking a little break couldn't hurt," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yes! Naps for the win!" Lila cheered, feeling a sudden burst of energy. "Oh! Could we also get some sea salt ice cream before we go? I saw a food stand for that around the corner, and I've _always_ wanted to try it!" Riku gave her a disapproving look.

"I think you've had enough excitement for one day without adding sugar to the mix."

"Oh come on, snowball. It's only... uhhh... what time is it here?" After not finding the time, since the clock-tower was nowhere in sight and neither of them owned a watch, Lila shook her head and continued. "Whatever! Point is I haven't had lunch yet, so I'm tired and frickin' starving!"

" _Fine_ , but only because we need to restock on potions," Riku rolled his eyes, preferring to give into Lila's whims rather than deal with her scorn before he hefted Pluto into his arms, since he was the only person strong enough to hold him and he didn't want the dog to injure himself further.

Lila continued to ramble about something else, but the only thing that remained constantly on Riku's mind was the abnormal Heartless they had fought. Even as a boss, the Heartless they'd fought was strange. Heartless were never smart enough to plan, at least, not that far ahead. Heartless were like pack dogs. They could group together and trap their prey, but they could never strategize. This trap required actual thought to put it into action, so that mean that someone else was pulling the strings. He tried scanning the area for traces of dark residue, briefly picking up on a massive scent before it disappeared like a leaf in the wind. While they had already dealt with the major threat, it wouldn't hurt to keep close tabs on Twilight Town in the future. While they walked over to a food stand, Riku failed to notice a figure wearing a long black trench-coat walking down one of the smaller alleyways.

"Where's the Heartless the Organization was talking about?" the figure asked himself quietly. Pulling back the hood, the figure was revealed to be a young boy with spiky blonde hair. "I haven't seen anything other than the usual Heartless that show up, and I've already taken care of them." Roxas paused, considering briefly his next move before shrugging. "Oh well. I'm sure I've collected enough hearts. Might as well RTC," he declared before he felt his stomach rumble. "...Right after I get some ice cream."

Right as he was about to march towards the ice cream stand, he noticed that it already had two customers and quickly hid behind a light post. Standing in front of the vendor was a girl with curly brown hair and a boy with spiky silver hair that held onto a goofy-looking yellow dog. Using the reconnaissance skills Xigbar taught him, Roxas deducted that they were probably a young couple out on a date walking their dog. He couldn't recall ever seeing the couple around town, but the boy with silver hair looked strangely familiar to him, though he couldn't remember where he had seen him before. Maybe it would come back to him, like all of his other broken memories. After waiting for the couple to leave, Roxas purchased some sea salt ice cream and quickly pulled his hood forward to hide his face before manifesting a Corridor of Darkness. After stepping through it, the portal vanished right behind him, leaving no trace that he had been there.


	12. A New Outlook and a New Outfit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lila and Riku head back to Traverse Town, but while Riku's trying to gather intel on Howl, Lila ends up wandering off to where she isn't supposed to and ends up in a heap of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can thank my roommate for the prologue. The entire first half of the chapter is dedicated to a stream-of-consciousness debate we had between each other involving the Witch of the Waste being the worst customer ever for poor service industries like McDonald's.

**Background Soundtracks  
Irremovable Spell by Joe Hisaishi** **  
Merry-Go-Round of Life (Opening) by Joe Hisaishi  
A Walk in Andante by Yoko Shimomura from Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix.  
Traverse Town by Project Destati  
** **A Walk in the Skies by Joe Hisaishi**   
**Strange Whispers by Yoko Shimomura**

Binx had been running the local snack shop for years. Originally, he had set himself up with a junker food truck, but due to popularity, he was finally able to purchase a rundown shack and turn it into a proper food service industry. He had seen shops come and go, but he was still the go-to snack guy. He would sell Struggle Dogs and Twilight Twisters, which were basically hotdogs and pretzels, and would often cater for the Struggle Tournaments that always brought in a fair amount of revenue, but sea salt ice cream had been his go-to product, though not everyone liked its unique flavor. Occasionally, the elderly tea shop owner Sarah would order one and shamelessly flirt with him while she ate, but other than his teenage employee Biggs, who came in during weekends for part-time inventory work, it was a pretty quiet life.

Most business days had a steady income, since Twilight Town always had a fairly mild climate supported by their permanent sunset, but when business was slow, he would sometimes close down the shop for a couple minutes and nod off during his work breaks. He had been in the middle of one of his breaks when he heard a loud tap. Opening one eye, Binx saw an extravagantly dressed old woman with dark colored robes and a large plume hat tap her jewel-covered finger on the glass order window.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. We're closed," Binx called out, resuming his napping position.

 _Tap tap tap._ His brow furrowed, and he repeated,o "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but we're closed."

 **TAP TAP TAP!** Thinking she was just hard at hearing, Binx sighed and got up from his chair and turned on the speakers.

"Ma'am, we're closed, and I'm on break. Could you please come back later?"

"What a degenerate little shop, to be closed in the middle of the day," replied the woman. "Surely, a rugged man like yourself would need the extra business." Binx frowned at the woman's egocentricity and blatant impatience, but his attitude changed slightly at the pile of gold that gathered in her hands.

"Fine. What can I do for you?" Binx yawned, trying to revert back into business mode. "We have Twilight Twisters, Struggle dogs-"

"Relax, dear, I'm not here to eat your insipid 'junk food,'" the lady waved dismissively. "I'm here because I want information." His eyebrow arched.

"About what?"

"I want to know if two individuals stopped by your shop earlier today." Binx let out an irritated sigh and crossed his arms.

"Ma'am, you're going to have to be more specific. I see tons of people during the day."

"A young couple," she described. "A curly, impoverished girl and a boy with silver hair. They should've ordered ice cream from you."

 _Doesn't sound like anyone I know, though now that I think about it, I did have a couple of new customers earlier today,_ Binx thought to himself. _But why did she ask if they were eating ice cream? I didn't tell her that I sold ice cream._

"Are they your grandkids?" he asked her, causing her friendly facade to instantly give way to fury.

 _"No,"_ she grit her teeth before swallowing her pride and giving him a sickly sweet smile. "I'm just looking for them. They have something of mine, and I want it back." Binx gave her one final look over before answering.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I haven't seen anyone matching that description," he denied, causing the woman to frown and reveal more wrinkles on her face. She almost seemed to grow older by the second.

"Are you certain?"

Of course he was certain. He never really had a lot of business for sea salt ice cream unless it was during the summer or one of his regulars, but clearly this woman was trouble. He had never seen her before today, and her egocentric attitude left him in a bad mood, reminding him of his more difficult customers, and frankly that just made him want to get rid of her faster.

Something dodgy was clearly going on, and after dealing with an incident involving his younger sister Emily, he definitely didn't want any trouble or involvement with whatever was going on. He wasn't sure if the people the woman was looking for were good or bad, but it wasn't his call to make. All that mattered was that he didn't trust her as far as he could throw her and, judging from all the double chins and neck rolls she was sporting, that wasn't very far.

"Positive," he nodded in finality. The woman let out a sigh.

"Such foolishness, trying to lie to a witch." Dark shadows began licking off of her clothes as Binx fell out of his chair in shock and awe as she placed her hand on the glass window and made it vanish into thin air. He felt a cold shiver run up his spine, clashing with the warm summer heat as her coat became long and transparent before she waved her arm over him with a sudden quickness that belonged to a woman younger than she was. Suddenly, he felt hot and compressed as the world began to grow as he felt more and more pressure build until she pulled back her sleeve and the shadows dissipated.

"Since you're so interested in napping and being indifferent, I'm sure this form suits you much better than your old one," the witch said before walking away, hiding an arm that began to grow wrinkly and decrepit. The manager was gone. All that was left in his place was a grey and white tabby cat with bright yellow eyes, yowling and pawing frantically at the newly formed glass window.

* * *

 _Keyblade, keyblade. I have a keyblade~_ Lila sang gleefully inside her head as she practiced summoning and banishing the weapon away, over and over. She seemed to be getting the hang of it as she creatively summoned and twirled it around like it was a baton, trying to find new ways of handling it.

"It's not a toy, Lila," Riku scolded irritably, but the gamer was too overjoyed to notice or care about his disapproving stare. The warmth and reassurance the keyblade gave her almost made up for the dull ache and pain wearing that had started wearing her down, its light energy seeming to numb some of the pain forming in her arms. _This keyblade is mine, and mine alone._

"Oh lighten up, Riku. It's not like this thing has an actual blade or anything," Lila waved dismissively, "It's a bludgeon, at best." Wondering if it was a fluke that he could wield her keyblade earlier, Lila quickly tossed Stargazer at him to see if he'd drop it and be caught off-guard. As if he had expected her retaliation, he snatched it effortlessly out of thin air, much to her disappointment.

"Still, you shouldn't treat it like a toy," Riku gave her a reproachful stare before he held the keyblade up observantly in his hands. "Don't you think it looks a bit tacky?"

"Says the guy with the bat-wing sword," she retaliated with a smug expression, trying to hide the quick flush of embarrassment staining her cheeks. _It's not like I chose how it was supposed to look..._ she thought before motioning to take the keyblade from him. "Now give it back."

"Nope."

"Riku, I'm serious. Give it back." Lila frowned as she reached out, only for him to keep it out of reach. "Oh, come on!" She whined as he pushed her back with one arm and held Stargazer away from her with the other. Rather than try and hope she would suddenly overpower him or grow five inches taller, Lila stepped back and held out her hand and concentrated. Not long afterward, the keyblade suddenly reappeared back into her hand. She started to give Riku a triumphant smirk before she felt Stargazer tugged out of her grip and reappear into his. Now he was the one wearing a cocky grin.

"Okay, now you're just being immature," she glared at him and folded her arms.

"Only because you're acting like a spoiled child." Lila gave him a cross look, hating to be teased, and ended up playing magic tug-of-war with him for about five minutes before she let out a huff.

"Ugh, fine. I won't treat it like a toy," she replied shortly before he finally handed it back. Rather than spin the keyblade like last time and get it taken away again, Lila resigned to quietly examining its features more closely. The metal pommel was a carved Fleur de lis stacked on top of a smaller one that ended at the bottom of the hilt, and was somewhat addictive to touch with its grooved carvings. From it, a pair of wings and a long blue blade curved out into what resembled a spear or lance. Her fingers traced up the sword until they stopped on a sideways Fleur de lis extended into the six pointed start, reminding her of a shooting star. The flower petals, she noticed, felt like silk but were as strong as steel as she gently traced the petals between her fingertips. While she did so, she thought she caught Riku's watchful glance out of the corner of her eye, and for a moment, believed she saw a hint of jealousy, but it might've been her imagination. _Maybe I shouldn't show off my keyblade so much in front of him..._

Thinking she'd had enough practice for one day, Lila banished her keyblade away and decided to settle into reading a bit more of _Cast Off_ before the ship alerted them that they were about to land. Riku stood up and cracked his back before clearing off his work station, finally finishing off the sea salt ice cream that she had bought for him. He was a bit stubborn in accepting it, but somehow she managed to convince him that it was probably in his best interest to eat something since she hadn't seen him eat anything for lunch, and that they both deserved a treat after such a rough first day. Right as Riku was about to chuck his ice cream stick into the trash, Lila leapt up from her seat.

"Wait! Don't throw that away!" she exclaimed, reaching out her hand to block the trashcan.

"Why not?" he asked, arching an eyebrow as she plucked the popsicle stick out of his hand and lifted it up to his face.

"Because your stick says 'winner.' If you collect like ten of these winner sticks, you get a free ice cream," she explained, showing him her own ice cream stick, which was blank, in comparison before lowering it.

"You expect us to visit the shop again?"

"Uh _yeah._ The ice cream's delicious, plus the Struggle tournament sounded like fun." Riku shook his head.

"We're not going back to Twilight Town just for fun and a bunch of ice cream."

"Then how about for training or searching?" Lila offered wisely. "The tournament seems like a good opportunity to train, and we never even checked the whole town to see if my mom or sister were even there. We were too occupied with visiting Master Yen Sid or dealing with the Heartless."

"I guess that makes sense," Riku admitted with a shrug before Lila placed his popsicle stick back into in his hand.

"So keep the stick, genius," she grinned smugly, clasping her other hand forcefully around his to close it around the ice cream stick before giving his hand a light, satisfied pat. She quickly turned around and set her own popsicle stick down on the ledge next to her book, which remained open and dog-eared.

"But even if we do end up buying all that junk food, then why keep your ice cream stick?" Riku asked. "It doesn't even have a winner icon on it."

"Souvenir," Lila said plainly with a shrug. Riku gave her a blank look.

"A souvenir? Seriously? You're going to keep junk like _that_ as a souvenir?"

"Don't judge. I paid for it. I can do what I want with it," she sniffed and crossed her arms haughtily. "Besides, it's not like my crap's ever going to get in your way, anyways." Rather than argue, Riku just shrugged and made his way over to Pluto.

"Looks like you're sitting this one out, boy. Take it easy." Riku gave Pluto a brief pat on the head before exiting the ship. Lila followed after him before turning towards the Accessory Shop, the exact opposite direction, Riku noticed, he was going. "Wait, where are you going?" She stopped and gave him a sideways glance.

"Where are _you_ going?" she reiterated pointedly.

"The mission," he said slowly before elaborating. "The whole reason why we're in Traverse Town again?"

"So am I."

"Then let's go," he offered, holding out his arm away from the Accessory Shop.

"Wait, I'm confused. What are you talking about?" she asked, holding up her arms in confusion.

"I was talking about finding Howl. What were you talking about?"

"My repairs. I still need to stop by the Accessory Shop so I can pick up and pay Cid for the repairs on my phone and iPod."

"Well, then let's just pick up your stuff and go." Riku declared before she held up her hand and placed herself hastily between him and the shop.

"Umm... I think it might be better if I went in by myself. The last time you and Cid talked, you both ended up fighting," she advised. "Plus, it might be awhile. He might not even finished with all the repairs."

"Right..." Riku folded his arms thoughtfully. "Well then, I guess I can try and see if I can find any information on Howl."

"Cool. I'll be here-" Lila nodded before awkwardly trailing off, Riku already leaving her behind. "I guess..." Standing in front of the Accessory Shop door, she paused before slipping her hands into her coat pockets.

 _Better make sure I actually have the right amount,_ she thought, pulling out large handfuls of gold coins. The currency wasn't too different from U.S. currency, other than being marked with large numbers and cent icons rather than a presidents' faces. Unfortunately, everything was in coins, so Lila ended up sitting at an outdoor cafe table in order to count everything out like she was Scrooge McDuck. By the time she was done, the pile had totaled to four thousand and twenty seven munny.

 _Oh shoot, I'm almost a thousand short,_ her brow furrowed as she felt her eyes drift around town before they fixated on the Third District doors. _Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to do a little Heartless hunting. As long as I don't antagonize any of the big ones or try to take on too many at once, I think I'll be okay._ Not giving it another thought, Lila summoned her keyblade and took off towards the Third District and pushed open the gates.

* * *

Thinking of places to look for information, Riku wound up standing outside of 7th Heaven. As much as he disliked the idea of bars, he figured visiting the 7th Heaven would be a good place to collect information. Strange to think that he would be doing the exact same thing he did twenty four hours ago: searching for someone he'd never met and ending up at a bar. Hopefully, it would end with more success and less vomit on his shoes.

Right as he was about to reach out for the door handle, he noticed he still had the ice cream stick Lila had bought him clenched in his fist. Honestly, he didn't care much for the flavor. The strange combination of sweet-vanilla shave ice flavoring and sea salt was a bit much for him, yet the salty taste was strangely addictive that he couldn't help but finish it. It left an odd, coconut aftertaste in his mouth after he'd finished, something that reminded him of home.

Home... When was the last time he had thought of it? So much had happened since he had left the Destiny Islands. He could scarcely remember what his school even looked like, yet the taste of the ice cream had brought back so many memories of the islands. The sway of the tree branches from the ocean wind, the smell and spray of salt water, the long afternoons of sword fighting with his friends. The sudden onset of nostalgia had reminded him of things he'd long since forgotten. _Maybe the ice cream flavor wasn't so bad..._

After pocketing the popsicle stick, Riku tugged open the bar door and hoped for the best. Gratefully, it didn't appear too crowded, which meant that at least talking with Tifa would be a bit more bearable than last time. As much as he disliked her way of running things, Riku definitely preferred Tifa's company over Cid's, since at least she could keep a level head went it came to dealing with drunk lunatics.

"Hey, snowball. Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon. Need another table? Drinks are on me," Tifa offered while she was cleaning a glass with a worn cloth. He gave her a sarcastic look before she held up her hands apologetically. "Kidding. Can't you take a joke?" Riku let out an irritable growl, though Tifa didn't seem to take his attitude personally as she motioned for him to sit down, which he did so reluctantly. "So what can I do for you? I noticed you're little friend isn't here. You two end up having a fight?"

"She's not my friend, and that's none of your business," he replied stiffly.

"Then why are you here?"

"I need information. I'm looking for someone, and I figured since you seem to know everybody that you'd be the person to ask. Do you happen to know a wiz-" Riku paused before changing his mind. "I mean, have any girls named Yukino or Kurami Hoshiyama come through here?"

"Old flames?" Riku gave her another sarcastic look. "Had to ask. Sorry. Doesn't ring a bell. What do they look like? I see a lot of girls in Traverse Town."

"They umm... they look like Lila," Riku said, though he wasn't entirely sure of himself, since she never really talked much about her family. What he said might not even be true. She could've looked like her dad. Did she even have a dad? The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Lila was still such a mystery to him. All he really knew about her was that she was looking for her family and somehow knew about him, Sora, and how to fight the Heartless. Tifa noticed this and gave him a secretive smile as she washed out and stacked her newly clean beer mug.

"Family, huh? Well, that's not a lot to go on, but I'll be sure to let you know if I see them," Tifa shrugged, moving on to clean the next glass. "You know, you could always ask Cid. That guy's kinda rough around the edges, and I get that you two have had your issues, but he's pretty much the welcoming committee for Traverse Town. He never turns down a person in-need and always ends up meeting most of folks that end up here."

Riku let out a small breathe. _Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to go by there, since Lila's already there waiting for an order._

"I'll be sure to ask him on my way back, but before I do, I have one more person I want to know about," Riku asked. "By any chance, do you happen to know a wizard named Howl?"

* * *

Despite wielding a keyblade and having gaming knowledge of Heartless, Lila found that fighting Heartless was exhausting work, especially when Heartless like Red Nocturnes and Yellow Operas made it increasingly difficult to land hits with them constantly zipping around and flying out of reach. The fact that they also shot fireballs and lighting at her face didn't help much either. As much as Lila liked her Stargazer, she was starting to miss the long range combat the CCM5 comfortably gave her, even if it was a pile of rubble in Twilight Town. After much perseverance and a couple close encounters, she managed knock the Heartless down, one-by-one, though the amount of munny they left behind left much to be desired.

 _Damn Heartless are more trouble than they're worth..._ Lila hissed internally, cursing her slow amount of progress. _I've just about had it with the low amount of kills. Even if I had Pluto with me, at this rate, it will take me all day to get me all the munny I need for my repairs._

This sad fact was why Lila had moved onto the Second District, where the bigger and better game truly lied. From what she remembered from _Kingdom Hearts_ , a Defender was the best thing to spawn, and it was likely to show up in the Hotel portion of the district. They were tough, but the munny they left behind was well worth the wait, and while Lila caught her breathe, she believed was well-prepared to put a little elbow grease into earning it. What she hadn't prepared for was how much.

"Oh crap! Crap! CRAP!" Lila yelped, sprinting towards the Hotel with a mixed batch of Soldiers, Shadows, Air Soldiers, and Large Bodies trailing after her. She knew that the keyblade was stronger against Heartless. What she had forgotten was how it was basically a homing beacon for them as well. By the time she even made it to the Hotel, she'd only taken out half of them and was completely out of breathe. Of course, this was when the Defenders decided to show up.

Spinning their dog head shields, the armored Heartless reached out to take a bite of their target before Lila jumped back with a start. Gratefully, they were slow, but the spells their sentient shields cast made it hard to retreat. Depending on what color their three eyes glowed, Lila was met with either long range fire or ice attacks. Being surrounded on both sides, Lila was frost bitten on one side and nearly scorched on the other, and with the exit blocked, it seemed like she wasn't getting out of there any time soon.

"It's not nice to gang up on a lady," spoke a soft male voice. Lila tilted her head to see where the voice had come from, having spoken very close to her ear, but before she could, she was immediately blown back by a sudden burst of wind. Without warning, she found herself flying rapidly away from the first Defender and past the second before she was slowly set down. It was then that she realized that an arm had been around her waist. When she tried to look up at her rescuer, the man pushed her face into his chest right as bright flashes of light erupted near them, causing the Defenders to shriek in agony. Then they stopped and they were met with silence. Absolute silence.

The grip lessened on her head and the hand dropped to her side. When she looked up at the man, she noticed that he had striking, shoulder-length blonde hair and was fairly attractive. Other than his rather extravagant light red and blue checkered coat, which he donned more like a cape than a coat, he wore a plain white dress shirt and a simple pair of black, dress pants.

"Are you alright, miss?" he asked gently, holding up her left hand as if he were motioning to kiss it.

"I umm... I'm fine, thank you," Lila mumbled with a blush, jerking her hand away and shrinking back from the bold and sudden intimacy. His blue eyes appeared glassy, reflecting almost soullessly back at her like a mirror, yet they seemed to hold a deep and profound wisdom. For some reason, they fixated intently on her right hand.

"That's an interesting sword you carry," the man observed, gesturing to the keyblade she held at her side. "Try not to let its power go to your head. In my experience, those who seek out trouble will usually find it."

"Who are you?" she finally asked.

"Only a man passing through," he spoke aloofly. Tugging at the cuff of his coat, he turned and left her with those words.

* * *

Riku quickly left Tifa's bar, disturbed by the young bartender's words.

_"Howl's a wizard that preys on hearts. According to some of the locals, he tends to go after beautiful young women and steals their hearts right before eating them."_

What was Yen Sid thinking, sending them to study magic under a person who acted like a Heartless? Riku had never before questioned Yen Sid's credibility, since the King always spoke highly of him, but maybe the old master was getting a bit senile in his old age. Then again, there was always more than meets the eye when it came to people, but he couldn't focus on speculation right now. He had to be vigilant and warn Lila as soon as possible, because now he felt a sense of urgency in trying to find this guy. If not to train under him, then to keep him from hurting anyone else. At least he wouldn't have to worry about Howl coming after him. He had enough problems as it was.

* * *

A bit dazed from her encounter, Lila just decided to pick up the leftover Defender munny and return to the Third District. Suddenly aware of her appearance, she was now blushing from shame. The clothes that she had just borrowed had gone from slightly worn to straight up trashed in mere seconds. How was she going to explain this to Tifa, or worse, Riku? She was sure the islander wouldn't exactly be pleased at the fact that she decided to wander off alone and nearly get herself killed. _Oh well, I've already come this far. Might as well earn the rest of the munny._ Lila sighed in resignation and decided to mundanely go back to shooting down Red Nocturnes and Yellow Operas, since at least they were more obnoxious than dangerous.

Wanting to fatten her munny stash, she managed to fight a couple Shadows and Soldier Heartless that skittered onto her path on the way back to the Accessory Shop. They were a lot easier to fight than before, and weren't nearly as obnoxious as the flying Heartless, but they spawned a lot more and in great numbers. Lila was almost done fighting them before she heard a soft voice accentuate the air. A young woman with a long braid was running from some Air Soldiers that spiraled and dived towards her, swiping at the hat she held so close to her head as if they wanted to snatch her up.

"Oh no you don't!" Lila tried to reach for them like she had with the Nocturnes and Operas, but they kept flying out of reach. _If only I was taller or the keyblade was a bit longer..._ She eyed the length of the sword. It was then that she noticed that the key-chain itself added to its length. Gears began turning in her head as her hand slid curiously down to the end of the chain and began spinning the keyblade like a lasso. Putting this all on impulse and dumb curiosity, she clumsily swung the spinning keyblade up towards the Heartless, managing to damage the automaton wings badly enough that they fell to the ground like stunned songbirds from a kid's slingshot.

"Huh," was all she said. Trying to see if she could replicate her last success, she experimentally spun the keyblade by the chain again so it would reach up a bit higher and fortunately brought the other one down like the first. Shifting her hand back to the pommel, Lila rushed the two downed Heartless and promptly eliminated them. She didn't have much time to reflect back on her success or the strange way the hearts glittered as they left the bodies as a new swarm of Heartless appeared, this time with two large bodies and more Nocturnes, two of which began to send fireballs down towards the young woman from earlier. Before Lila could react, a flash of thunderbolts rained down from the sky, eliminating the remaining the Heartless scattered around the area. All that was left was the bits of gold munny left on the streets, which Lila eyed hungrily.

"Oh, thank you so much," the girl bowed her head slightly as Lila held in a startled gasp, having accidentally forgotten she was there. "I didn't realize this street was so dangerous. I just assumed that the monsters wouldn't come out if I stuck to the main roads. I seem to be running into all kinds of trouble today."

"Yeah, sure. It's no problem." _Well, I wasn't really doing it for you, but oh well. Two birds, one stone,_ Lila thought, awkwardly scratching the back of her head. Now that she wasn't running away in terror, she noticed that the girl in front of her seemed fairly plain with her standard braid and modest dress, but like most women she appeared to have the potential to be pretty if she had put in enough effort. Her oval shaped face certainly gave her many advantages with both hairstyles and make-up if used correctly. She seemed like she was around her own age, if not older. By that point, Lila assumed she must have tuned out for too long because she suddenly heard the girl say the phrase, "Which is why I must thank you properly."

"Oh... umm... thanks, but that's really not necessary," Lila gave her a strained smile, not wanting to take advantage of someone she didn't even mean to save.

"Please! I insist!"

"Really, it's fine. I didn't even do all that much," she waved off, grateful for the warmth of praise but mildly distracted by the curious thought of where the Thunder spell had come from. _  
_

"Still, I feel as if I ought to do something to repay you. There must be something..." the young woman thought for a moment before her eyes lit up. "Oh! My sister and I own a clothing store. I could at least give you a discount on a new outfit or a free pair of shoes, if you'd like." Immediately, Lila gears grounded to a hault.

"Well, if you insist," she spoke coolly with a shrug, turning her back to the girl in an attempt to hide her elated expression. _Yes! I'm so lucky! What are the odds that the one person I run into is a clothing saleswoman?_ Lila did a mental fist pump as she followed behind the girl while remembering to keep her guard up for any oncoming attacks. It wasn't long before they arrived in front of a little clothing boutique in the Second District, displayed wordlessly by a hanging sign with the icon of a dress carved into the wood frame.

* * *

"Well, hey there, snowball! How've ya been?" the mechanic greeted, causing Riku to flinch. _Son of a-!_ That nickname really was going to stick with him, wasn't it? Riku's lips pressed into a thin line before answering.

"Hey, old timer. I see they still haven't put you in a nursing home yet," Riku retorted smartly. "When do you think that day will be?" The mechanic just casually flicked his old toothpick into his scrapheap trashcan and went about his business.

"The day I retire will be the day that cats like water, and your haircut suddenly comes back into fashion. You know, which ever comes first," Cid shrugged before grabbing himself another toothpick. "So whaddya want? Don't tell me you need maintenance on Shera?"

"Not this time."

"How's she handling?"

"Fine. Traffic's been fairly light. The ship has a bit of drag though."

"That's because you have more weight now. Piloting aircraft is a delicate process. Have too much weight or too many passengers, and it will extend the ETA."

"Speaking of which, I'm here for Lila. Where is she?"

"Lila? I haven't seen her all day. You sure she ain't with you?" Cid's brow furrowed in uncertainty.

"Hey Cid, you in here?" called out Lila's voice.

"In the back!" Cid yelled back. It wasn't long after that Riku was welcomed by an unusual sight. He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and give her a once over. Not only had she not been here, but she had an entire wardrobe change. Her shredded jacket and white tank top were replaced by a sleeveless, lilac, zip-up top with a collar that tucked over a black puritan collar that had yellow clasps criss-crossing over each other to keep it closed.

"Well, don't you clean up nice," the mechanic stated with a half smile.

"Thanks, I-" Lila began before her eyes locked with Riku's perplexed stare and exclaimed, "Oh shit." A mirthless, sadistic smirk spread across Riku's face, taking in the satisfaction of Lila's expression that resembled a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar.

"Well, hey there, Lila," Riku spoke with a false cheeriness, gesturing to her clothes. "Nice outfit."

"Y-Yeah, well, it seemed like time to upgrade," she admitted bashfully as she wiped her hands on her purple, pleaded skirt. Riku's eyes couldn't help but notice the black knee-socks and suspenders further down that kept them from slipping into her bucket top, knee high converse.

"You don't think the belts and suspenders are a bit much?" Riku pointed out, noticing that Lila at least four belts, and only one of them was on her waist, the others holding up her finger-less, black opera gloves or down at her wrists.

"Oh, like you're one to talk with those belt-clipped waders and oversized clown shoes," Lila quickly fired back, her face starting to flush red like she was gearing up for a long tangent. "You ever think that wearing just _one_ pair blue jeans might be a bit more comfortable than two? So don't you go talking to me about fashion with those redundant pants of yours!"

"Jeez, sorry I asked," Riku cringed, holding up his hands. _Note to self. Don't criticize a woman's fashion sense_ _EVER._

"So, what brings you here?" Cid asked.

"Actually, I came here to pay up." Lila emphasized this by turning out her old coat's pockets, a large amount of gold munny coins loudly splattering out on the work table. One of the coins began to roll in front of a dumbstruck Cid towards the end of the table before he quickly snatched the escaped coin.

"How in the hell did you manage get that much cash so fast?" he gaped in awe.

"I have my ways," Lila smirked as Stargazer flashed into her hand.

"So you've got a keyblade too, huh? Seems like everyone's got one of those these days." Cid shifted his toothpick to the other side as he began counting the coins spread out on the counter.

"I take it my order's done then?" she asked.

"Yeah. Your odd devices were so curious to have sitting on my work bench since you left 'em, I couldn't help but fiddle with 'em a bit. I'll get 'em out once I'm done counting your munny." Lila let out an excited 'Sweet!' as Cid started mumbling to himself a bunch of numbers. Suddenly, a jingle was heard from the front door. "Be right with you in a second!" he called out to the front. After setting down his already counted stack, Cid swiftly moved towards the front counter

"Thirty Hi-Potions and twenty Ethers," was the gruff replied of the short bearded man.

"Thanks again, Markl," Cid nodded as he moved past the counter before hefting one of the crates of potions the man had rolled in. "I haven't been able to keep up with demand lately since the Duck triplets left, so it's really nice of your friend Jenkins to help synthesize these for me."

"It's no trouble at all. As long as we get a small cut of your profits, it's always a pleasure doing business with you," Markl replied.

"Just wait here while I go finish the other order," Cid jabbed his thumb to the back before going back to finish counting Lila's munny. Riku leaned up against the metal ladder that lead to the attic storage and let his eyes drift around the room, watching the dwarf with a curious sideways glance. Markl returned this with a suspicious sneer.

"What are you looking at, you whippersnapper?" he growled threateningly, though it had less of an effect on Riku as he turned away to try and fight down a smile. Who did that kid think he was fooling? Riku had never seen anyone so short for their age, and his voice sounded almost exactly like a child pretending to sound like a grown up. He knew this because he and Sora tried it all the time when they were kids to try and sneak into the movie theater so that they could watch grown up movies. Of course, it never worked, being that it was a small town and Sora was terrible about keeping his balance sitting on top of his shoulders without kicking him in the face. Riku would've believed it more if Markl was a child taller and wore a brown overcoat instead being short and wearing a blue cloak and beard. Then again, who was he to judge?

"Oh yeah, Riku, I forgot to ask, but how's the search for Howl been?" Lila inquired, breaking him from his train of thought.

"I've heard a few stories about him, but no luck. Whoever this Howl guy is, he doesn't want to be found," he shook his head, though when he looked out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw the small dwarf stiffen. Testing this theory, the islander turned to Cid, who was putting Lila's munny in the cash register. "Tell me, Cid. I've heard you're supposed to know all the ins and outs. Does Howl consume the hearts of others like the rumors say?" Cid scratched his chin stubble with a long 'hmm' before twisting the toothpick in his teeth.

"I think so. From what I've heard, Howl only eats the hearts of beautiful ladies. Guess eating a man's gives him heartburn."

"Wait, are we talking about the same Howl? The guy we have to look for?" Lila exclaimed while Riku just gave her a shrug in reply.

"Seems like only yesterday we only had Heartless to deal with," Cid sighed with a reminiscent look in his eye. "Thank god we've got people like Markl and Jenkins to help us out and keep people like him away."

"Are you going to take all day? I'm not getting any younger here!" Markl snapped grumpily. His mood sure seemed to spike pretty high in a such a short amount of time. For some reason, he seemed to be really anxious to leave, his fingers tapping anxious on the cart he brought in.

"Now, just hold it, old timer. I have to count and stack all of these so I know you brought me the right product and numbers," Cid advised as he continued lifting some of the potions from the crates.

"Who's Jenkins?" Lila asked.

"Just this old wizard guy that moved in a couple weeks ago," Cid explained before handing her order. "Anyways, here you go!"

"Thanks again, Cid. These look great!" she held the devices close to her chest before running her hands over the fine craftsmanship.

"You be careful now. Don't want men like Howl or your friend there to steal your heart," the mechanic joked, which caused Riku to roll his eyes.

"I will, though maybe we could try and find that Jenkins guy if Howl doesn't work out," Lila suggested. Riku couldn't help but smirk.

"Didn't you hear him, Lila? He said Howl only eats the hearts of beautiful ladies."

"And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" Lila crossed her arms.

"Only that I wouldn't think of you and the words ' beautiful lady' being in the same sentence."

"As opposed to what? Ugly male? I'm a lady, damn it! I deserve some respect!" she argued furiously. "You have no idea what we go through to look nice for you guys!" Riku was sure that she was screaming more at him, but he was tuning her out at this point. At least he knew what had set her off this time, but he couldn't help it. She was just begging to be teased with that outfit that she came in. It was so outlandish and over-the-top. While he watched her furious expression, he noticed that Markl was slowly edging towards the exit before he disappeared out the door.

 _That Markl guy seemed to be in a big hurry to get back to his friend. He even left his cart behind. Could this Jenkins guy and the one Master Yen Sid talked about be the same person?_ Riku considered this for a few more seconds before he abruptly stopped Lila and grabbed her wrist.

"We're leaving. Just grab your stuff and go," Riku said briskly before dragging a flustered Lila dragging her behind him.

"But wait-! Why-?"

"Just hurry up. I'll explain on the way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Below is a link to a drawing of Lila's outfit.
> 
> https://snowcloud8.deviantart.com/art/KH-OC-Lila-Hoshiyama-Redesigned-649692945


	13. No One Sees the Wizard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Witch of the Waste continues to stalk and screw people over, Riku has Sherlock-level deduction skills, and Lila is an oblivious phone addict.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to you guys ahead of time. It has recently come to my attention that writing Lila in first person point-of-view was not only awkward to write, but that it made her more of a vehicle for living through her rather than relating to her as a character. So, as of right now, the story will be written in third person POV. Thankfully, rather than make you wait guys 7+ years for me rewriting and fixing every chapter up until now, I am giving you a new chapter and will be slowly updating them along the way.

**Background Soundtracks**  
**Hesitation by Yoko Shimomura  
Just Wondering by Yoko Shimomura**  
 **Hikari (rock version)**

The Witch of the Waste had decided to come to Traverse Town on a whim. Since she had been unable to get much out of the foolish shopkeeper, she'd decided to move onto another world residing in the Realm Between as it took less energy to summon corridors than in the Realm of Light. It also gave her another opportunity to confront Yen Sid's errand dogs and search for leads on the whereabouts of Howl.

She had been searching for almost an hour now and almost none of the Heartless she'd had sent out came back. The Witch's face stretched into a wrinkled grin. This was a good sign. It meant that either a keyblade wielder was nearby or that someone with magic was in the area, someone with _strong_ magic. Either way, this new development would benefit her.

As luck would have it, she spotted the boy and young girl exiting from one of the shops only moments later, though the girl's outfit was much more tacky than before. The girl followed the silver-haired boy while fiddling with some sort of device she had flipped open earlier. While the Witch quietly walked the duo, her body began to stretch and lengthen like a blanket that someone had stepped on before turning thin and translucent. Right as she determined it was safe to strike, the boy suddenly stopped. Not paying attention where she was going, the girl walked right into him.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" The Witch shifted so that her form pressed closer towards the shadows, avoiding the boy's sharp gaze as he cautiously looked over his shoulder. Had he seen her? No... no her cloaking spells were perfect, even if she was initially weaker than she had been earlier today. If it wasn't the spell then... had he sensed her energy, her darkness? If he had, he didn't let on.

"It's your own fault for not paying attention. You might want to watch where you're going instead of burying your nose into that phone of yours."

The Witch gave him an unknowing smirk. He might be more of use to her than she had initially thought. Her eyes gleefully followed their movement before the girl stopped to admire a pair of boots in a window display.

"Hey, this is the shop." She pointed to a clothing store called Hatter's Boutique.

"You mean where you got your uh... clothes?" the boy asked while clearing his throat.

"Yeah. Some girl was being chased by Heartless and since I was farming for munny in the area, I decided to save her."

"I wondered how you got so much munny. So how many times did you nearly kill yourself in order to buy that outfit? Was it worth it?"

"D-Don't you start that again! I'm well aware that I'm new to this -I'm not stupid!- but if it makes you feel any better, I didn't really do all that much. Some random thunderbolts took out most of them before I had a chance to." The boy and the Witch froze simultaneously.

"Random thunderbolts?"

"Yeah, it was really weird 'cause I don't know any magic. I was kind of embarrassed when the girl offered up the free outfit." The Witch of the Waste leaned in, suddenly interested in their conversation.

"Who used them? Did you see anyone?"

"I... I dunno... I was kind of more focused on grabbing on the munny that all the Heartless dropped," the girl mumbled before looking down at her feet. "I just figured that some Yellow Opera did it accidentally or something."

"Show me." The girl stumbled over herself before she began leading him towards another district, a curious expression on her face. She melted out of the shadows after she had put enough distance between them that the boy wouldn't sense her as easily.

"It looks like I might have another lead after all." A small cohort of Shadows spread from underneath her cloak in all directions like water overflowing from a cup. "You are to observe them and nothing more," the Witch ordered as the Heartless twitched their antennae as if to signal each other before fading into the street. "Tell the others to leave this shop girl to me. She is mine to deal with." With that bit of knowledge, the Witch slunk into the crevices of the door and let herself into the boutique.

* * *

Following Lila's directions, they ended up in the Third District courtyard. Before, they had been following Markl for a couple of streets until they had lost him, the wizard having vanished into thin air, probably due to the dark energy Riku felt earlier. Now they had another mystery to solve, another possible lead.

Riku held in a grimace. He knew this place. It was where he had been reunited with Sora after their world had fallen into darkness. He had remembered feeling so relieved when Maleficent had told him she had located Sora in Traverse Town, and even more so after having found him. He had spent days worrying about his friends, on whether they had made it off the island or not. There was even a small moment of time where he briefly cursed his friend for being too weak to hang on, which he had almost immediately regretted afterwards.

Of course, this was before he knew Sora had a keyblade and after Maleficent had warned him that his friend might not be the same. The malevolent sorceress gladly exploited his insecurity by using Sora's new friends and newfound power to twist his already complicated feelings into something dark to fuel her ambitions. He had never visited the town since then, until he had first met Lila on the King's request, and even then he had never thought to explore until Lila mentioned the mysterious act of magic.

She had pointed him towards an alley that stopped at a large red door with strange symbols. Arcane runes lined the framework and the center held three odd characters and large flame symbol. Using his intuition and his past experiences with mysterious doors, Riku guessed that no one would put a door here unless it had to lead somewhere, but it didn't have a doorknob or a keyhole. _Does this door lead to the heart of this world?_ Riku's theory wavered when placed his hand on the mysterious doorway. Even through his black gloves, Riku could feel the warmth from the center of the door as he wiped away his glove, noticing that it was entirely covered with ash and soot, obvious traces leftover from a fire spell.

"The flame symbol is still warm..." Riku said mostly to himself. "Someone must have used it recently."

"Are you thinking that Markl guy from earlier cast a spell on it or something?" Riku nodded. _She must have come to the same conclusion I'd had._

"What about this guy makes you think he's related to Howl?" Lila asked him.

"Aside from the fact that he's not who he appears to be, it fits. I asked Tifa if stories about Howl have always been around, and she said that the rumors only sprang up a couple of weeks ago. Even Cid said that potions have been in short supply ever since his friends stopped making them for him. So a new benevolent wizard named Jenkins just happens to show up around the same time that the rumors about an evil wizard Howl pop up? I don't know about you, but that kind of thing doesn't strike me as a coincidence."

Lila mouth slightly fell open before she gave him an impressed nod. "Alright, I'll give you that. So what now? Are we just going to wait for this guy to come out or something?"

"Unless you happen to know any fire spells to get this door open," Riku jabbed his thumb towards the door before rubbing his chin. "Though chances are that he might be gone for ages. Cid did say they only got a fresh supply every week. It might be awhile before we see 'Markl' again."

Suddenly, a loud guitar ballad blasted from Lila's hand. She fumbled, almost dropping her phone from the shock, before she hurriedly flipped open the phone and put it to her ear.

"H-Hello?! Hello?" Lila yelped excitedly. The anxious excited joy in her face faded rapidly when she spoke the next couple of words. "Oh... Hey, Cid." Riku watched her expressions change as she continued to talk. "Uh great... Umm... how did you get this number?... Oh, I see. Yeah, that makes sense. How else would you get in touch with me?" She nodded a couple 'mmhmm's' before she asked, "Sure, what do you need? ...A delivery? ...A delivery to where again? Uh-huh... well, okay. See you in a bit. Bye."

She closed her phone and let out a small sigh. "You said this guy might show up in a week, right?"

"Yeah."

"I think waiting for Markl's going to have to wait."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers in the chapter title. You probably saw this coming.


	14. Adrift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally! Some insight into what is going on with Sora and company. Unfortunately, they are quickly realizing that maybe leaving the islands on a raft probably wasn't a good idea.

**Background Music**  
**Battle of Wills by Mark Mancina**  
**He Was You by Mark Mancina**  
**Lost at Sea by Thomas Newman**  
**Kakamora by Mark Mancina**

Sora and his friends had been sailing through the ocean for a while now. The waves were calm and steadily lapping against the raft, gently rocking it back and forth. It was in the heat of the day. The air was hot and sticky, and unfortunately for them, there was no cover and no wind.

"How much longer until we see land?" Sora asked as he wiped his sweaty brow.

"Quit complaining!" Donald grunted as he pulled back one of the oars in time with Goofy, who rowed with the other. "It's not like you're doing anything to help." Sora puffed out his chest and jabbed a thumb to his chest.

"Of course I am. I'm the captain, and that means I'm in charge."

"And what does that make me?" Kairi asked with her hands on her hips. Sora crossed his arms and tapped his foot, giving it some thought.

"Hmmm... first mate?" His friend snatched the line he was holding.

"Co-captain." Kairi corrected him with a smile before the boat lurched to the side and she was caught awkwardly by Sora. He held onto the mast and grabbed her around the waist, wincing from accidentally being elbowed in the side.

"Goofy, stop spinning the boat! You're making us go in circles!" Donald yelled at the knight after the latter decided to drop his oar so he could crack his joints.

"Oops! Sorry there, Donald." Goofy apologized and let go of the arm he was cracking and sheepishly grabbed onto the oar and started paddling again.

"You okay?" Sora asked Kairi.

"I'm fine," Kairi nodded, her cheeks flushed before she pulled away and quickly put her hands behind her back. Sora felt a little warm afterwards too. _Must be the heat,_ Sora thought as Kairi fanned herself with the mainsail, which remained slack. He couldn't blame her. They had been in the sun for much too long, and everyone was starting to get a little cranky.

"Thirsty?" Sora offered her a bottle that he pulled out of their supplies.

"A little bit, but we should try to conserve water. We don't have a lot left."

"That's because Sora forgot to properly tie down the basket with most of the water jugs in it," Donald frowned. Sora responded with a shrug.

"How was I supposed to know the knot wouldn't hold?"

"It's because you didn't use the right knots. Aren't you an islander? Shouldn't you already know this stuff?"

"Well, excuse me if I-!"

"Guys! Let's all just take a breather," Kairi stretched out her hands and stepped in between the two of them to calm both parties down. "I'll take over for you, Donald. It's my turn, and you should get some rest." Donald let out a sigh of relief as he set down the oar and reached for the basket they tied to the mast and pulled out a glass bottle filled with fresh water. The duck uncorked the bottle and started chugging the contents while Sora fiddled with a piece of line. He was in the process of trying to tie a bowline knot before giving up and tossing it aside when it ended up becoming a pathetic, half-hitch knot instead.

The keyblade wielder didn't want to admit it, but the reason he wore shoes with belts, Velcro, and snap-straps was because he still couldn't properly tie his shoes without knotting them up or making them too loose. _Riku was always better at tying knots. If it wasn't for him, we probably wouldn't have any idea how to build a raft..._ Sora swung lazily around the mast and looked up at the wayfinder charm Kairi had made, which was proudly displayed on the top of their mast almost like a flag. At least Kairi's good luck charm was still in place.

"Heya fellers, I don't mean to interrupt, but uh-" Goofy interjected. "-I think we should be careful. My funny bone has been acting real funny lately, and that can only mean one thing: a storm's a-brewin'."

"Ah phooey! What do you know, ya big palooka?" Donald waved off as he corked the glass bottle shut. "I've been traveling with you for years and not once has your elbow ever been right."

"But I've got a feeling that somethin' bad's about to happen."

"Nonsense! We'll be fine! All we have to do is find some wind." Donald stuck a finger in his mouth and then lifted it up into the air. A couple moments later, he felt a small breeze from the east and the sail on their raft began luffing. "Ah ha! See?"

"Guess our luck is finally changing," Sora said as Donald undid a line and pulled open the sail a bit more broadly.

"Alright. Full speed ahead," Kairi cheered and sat down to dip one of the oars into water on the stern, acting as a rudder to turn the boat until it pointed into the wind.

"Aye-aye, co-captain."

* * *

The ocean violently tossed the boat like a child with a ball in its hands. It was hard to believe that it had been calm only moments ago. The churning waves made steering almost impossible for Kairi, who was hanging onto the oar feeling like reigning in a large dog who had just saw a squirrel.

"I can't hold it any longer! Help me tie the oars down, Goofy!" Kairi yelled over the swell as the bumbling knight handed her some spare line. Donald was helping Sora with lifelines and supplies when he looked up and noticed the strain of the mainsail.

"Sora, furl the sail or we're going to lose it!" Donald ordered as he pulled the lines tight.

"I'm on it!" Sora saluted before shimming up the mast. The rain hit him so hard that he couldn't tell what was ocean and what was rain. He reached out toward the ends of the sail and tugged as hard as he could at the rope while he tried to wrap up the overinflated sail. Unfortunately, the gale-force winds yanked so fiercely at his hands that the rope burned him. A brief moment of shock was all that it took for him to let go of the line. The rope snapped back and undid the knot attached to sail and the wayfinder that flailed atop the mast.

_Oh no! Kairi's good luck charm!_ was Sora's first thought as it flew off of the line. The next was that he reacted a second too late as it plopped into the crashing waves and sank. Without hesitation, Sora dove under the waves after the wayfinder.

"Sora-!" he heard Kairi yell before the crash of water cut off the rest of her shout. The sea felt almost calm underneath the surface, the soft waves muffled only by the bubbles sizzling in his ears around him as he chased after the sinking pendant. If it wasn't for the shining glint of silver and brief flashes of lighting, he could hardly see the pendant at all in the murky depth. He didn't care. He had to get that charm back.

He could have sworn he was halfway to the seafloor by the time he was an arm's length away from the wayfinder. The chain knocked around clumsily in his fingertips before he finally caught it. He firmly grasped it and started kicking towards the surface like a frog coming up for air.

Sora burst from the surface with a loud gasp, his lungs filling with air. The raft was a bit farther away when he resurfaced, now almost twenty feet away. He kicked and flailed against the crashing waves towards the raft, trying to make up the distance, but the boat seemed to slip further and further away from him, and his arms were starting to feel heavy. Still, he urged his body to move forward, to just keep swimming.

"There! I see him!" he heard Goofy shout. The knight then lifted up a long fishing pole and spun around, swinging the line back and forth before launching a long cast that flew over Sora's head and plopped in the water behind him. Suddenly Sora began to move at a faster pace, the fishing hook snagged on the hood of his jacket pulling him forward. Donald held onto Goofy as the latter reeled him in. When he was a couple yards away, Kairi got on one knee and gripped onto the cleat of the boat and reached for him.

"Give me your hand!" Sora grabbed Kairi's outstretched hand as she latched onto his arm for a better grip and began to haul him onto the deck with Donald and Goofy's help. "Nice catch!" he said to Goofy, crawling on his hands and knees, trying to catch his breathe.

"Thanks! I taught it to my son, Maxie, when we went fishin'." Goofy clapped him on the back and started to unhook his jacket from his fishing line.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Donald scolded Sora and stomped angrily on the raft, making a big racket.

"Here, you'll probably need this." Kairi picked up and handed him a lifeline that was tied to the mast.

"Thanks." Sora reached out and grabbed the line. During that brief moment of calm, none of them saw the large maverick forming behind them until it was well above their heads. Lighting and thunder crashed, illuminating the titanic wave as it came down overhead. The impact felt like being ripped from an airlock in space as the water crashed over the raft and flipped it over, capsizing it and sending everyone spinning in the water. Seconds after the large wave had passed, everyone started popping up in the water and swimming towards the boat. They clung to the sides of the raft like it was a life-preserver as they tried to flip it right-side up.

"Is everyone alright?" Kairi asked as Donald started coughing up salt water. After finally clearing his throat, the duck let out a startled yelp and pointed to the horizon. A second wave was coming.

"Everybody hang on!" Goofy hollered and everyone braced for the large tidal swell. The second wave was almost as bad as the first. The water crashed against the raft, completely keeling it over as everyone was flipped upside-down into the water again. A fresh crack of lightning flashed in the sky overhead, its outstretched tendrils making it appear like it was almost daylight. The sudden brightness allowed Kairi to see everything that was going on under the waves. Everyone was together, tied to the raft by lifelines. Everyone, that is, except for Sora.

* * *

"Sora! Soooooora!" Kairi continued calling out for her friend. It had been hours since the storm had passed, but there was still no sign of Sora. _He can't be..._ Kairi shook her head. _No! He's fine. I know it!_

"Sooooora!" Goofy shouted, taking turns with Kairi as they looked for their friend.

"Will you both quit it!? Yelling isn't going to help anybody!" shouted Donald, who was swimming back to the boat with some supplies he found drifting in the water.

"I'm not about to give up on our friend," Goofy frowned. "He wouldn't do it for me, so I'm not going to do it for him!

"Maybe we should take a break..." Kairi croaked. Her voice felt dry and scratchy, though it was probably the only part of her that was. Her whole body was coated in ocean water and sea salt. She coughed for a bit before grabbing a bottle of fresh water from Goofy. "Thanks, Goofy."

"So how bad is the damage?"

"The mainsail and deck are fine, but I couldn't find any of the extra rope or food. We probably lost them in the storm," she listed off and took another swig of water. "How about you?"

"All I could find were some extra bits of driftwood and the lid to our basket."

"Well, at least we got some more fresh water, and Goofy caught some fish while you were gone." Kairi handed him another bottle and a small stick with a small, cooked sea bass stuck on the edge. Donald poked it a bit with his fingers and sniffed it before taking a bite. A couple of seagulls cried as they flew overhead, swooping down to catch some of the fish that had been stirred up during the storm. A couple braver ones tried to snatch Donald's cooked sea bass out of his hands with little success.

"Shoo! Shoo! Go on! Get! Go away, you rats with wings!" Donald shouted at a particularly eager bird that had landed on deck, who kept poking and prodding at the poor duck before going for the frying pan they had set up with the other uneaten sea bass. Finally having had enough, the magician summoned his wand and fired a small, concentrated thunder spell at the bird. The gull let out a startled cry before taking off. Donald scowled, his grumbles growing angrier and madder to the point that they didn't make sense anymore without subtitles. He crossed his arms. "I knew we should have come out here on a better boat!"

"Donald-" Goofy tried to soothe before Donald angrily swatted his hand away.

"NO! We should have had built a bulkhead or waited for the tide to go down or borrowed a real sailboat to go out on!" The list went on and on until the poor duck ran out of steam and was breathing angry, raspy breaths. He plopped down on the raft and kicked the water in defeat.

"Donald... we couldn't have expected any of this. Things like this just happen sometimes. I've seen full ships leave port and never return. Sometimes it's just bad luck." Kairi stared down at her hands. She didn't have her wayfinder with her. She was lost at sea without her good luck charm, without a keyblade, without Sora. But... she never really was without Sora, was she? He had always been with her, even when she had lost her heart. That's why... that's why...

"But it's going to be okay. Somehow, one way or another, we're going to be okay. We're going to find Sora, and then we're going to find Riku and the King as well!"

"How can you be so positive?" Donald gave her a look of disbelief and threw up his hands. "It's hopeless!"

"Not, it's not. Maybe it's me being a Princess of Heart or maybe it's because I've known him for so long. All I know is what's in my heart, and what my heart keeps telling me is that he's okay."

"I know what ya mean," Goofy nodded. "I haven't seen the King since we helped him close the Door to Darkness, but I'm sure he's fine. At least, I hope so." He trailed off for a moment before grinning like a thought occurred to him. "-and besides, with all these birds around, there has to be land nearby, right? So all we have to do is to just need to keep a look-out for any signs of land."

"Right." Kairi leaning away from the mast and looked towards the horizon, starting to tune the world out. Part of her expected to see Sora bobbing on some wreckage, clinging onto a pile of driftwood or maybe being lead by a pod of dolphins, like in the fish stories she had heard back home. But what she heard next wasn't what she expected. It was a low hum. It sounded different than the soft thrumming of distant waves. It was more like a continuous beat or a buzzing chant.

"What's that sound?" Kairi thought aloud. She turned and walked to the edge of the raft and listened for a moment before the soft, pounding echo began to steadily grow louder and louder. It could now be clearly heard along with the seagulls.

"It sounds kind of like drums," Goofy said as he squinted at the horizon. A large fog filled part of the ocean ahead, but if he squinted, he could make out small bits of blurred shadow and a couple sprouts that looked like trees. Finally, he could see the outline of a small island.

"Land ho!" Goofy called out. Donald turned away from his sulking to scold his friend before he suddenly cheered excitedly along with him. "Land ho! Land ho!" Kairi studied the small outline. It didn't look like any part of the Destiny Islands' silhouettes, so they hadn't been accidentally turned around in the storm. Kairi still wasn't sure if they'd had made it past the world boarder, but at least they hadn't gone through all of that for nothing.

"It's not the Destiny Islands. Maybe Sora swam there during the storm!" Kairi suggested.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Donald shouted eagerly before untying an oar and abruptly turning the boat around. Goofy leapt out to catch the cast iron skillet with the remaining sea bass, which unfortunately slid into the water the moment Goofy grabbed the handle. Little did they know that, underneath their raft, a small school of fish followed the speared sea bass until they were suddenly caught in a vortex of water and disappeared without a trace.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to look up a bunch of boat terminology for this chapter. I did like a week of sailing camp a couple years back, so some of it refreshed my memory, but I still had to look up official terms. You're welcome! Also, fun fact! Winds from the east usually are signs of a storm, and the knots that Sora was trying to tie earlier were real knots that sailors use. Half-hitches are usually kind of unsecure and flimsy unless used with other knots, but are relatively simple, while bowline knots are mostly used for rigging and rescue knots. Because Sora couldn't tie a bowline, his lifeline didn't hold and that's why Sora didn't stay with the raft.
> 
> The reason that Donald was fine and had decent knowledge of boating was because he wears a navy suit and lived on a houseboat in the cartoons that he actually sailed on some occasions, sometimes with Goofy or Mickey. As for Sora and Kairi, I always figured that since it was Riku's dream to leave the islands, that he was the one with all the sailing knowledge, and that Sora and Kairi were just along for the ride to help get supplies. I mean, just because you live near an ocean doesn't mean you automatically know how to sail or do other things like fish or surf. Plus, while playing the tutorial in Kingdom Hearts, I don't think I ever saw Kairi help get things or put the ship together. Not ONCE! Anyways, that's just my theory.


End file.
